


i'm screaming i love you so (my thoughts you can't decode)

by karaslance



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020), Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Shelby Goodkind-centric, Twilight AU, expect a lot of twilight saga cameos, minor Dot/Leah/Fatin, this is purely self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29061903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karaslance/pseuds/karaslance
Summary: Shelby Goodkind had never given much thought to how she would die.orShelby is turned into a vampire and taken in by the Olympic Coven in Forks, Washington, where she meets Toni Shalifoe and her pack of shifters.
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 96
Kudos: 313





	1. bones, blood, and teeth erode

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this was just me fulfilling the need i always have for gay twilight content, and as a way to give back to this fandom that i love so much. 
> 
> series title is from decode by paramore and the chapter title is from rosyln by bon iver and st. vincent from the new moon soundtrack

Shelby Goodkind had never given much thought to how she would die. She’d never really thought of death at all, actually. Not until that night. 

Something had changed that night. It was cloudy, which was unusual for the part of Texas Shelby calls home, so the light in the sky had faded much quicker than she was used to. Normally, she wouldn’t be walking home after dark all alone, normally she would have Becca with her, but that was before. Before she disappeared without a trace, before the police stopped getting tips, before it seemed like everyone had given up on her. 

Tonight, though, Shelby felt that familiar chill run down her spine, the kind that told her to pick up her pace. Before she could get very far, a man barreled out of an alleyway, and tackled her to the ground. She fought and screamed, but he clamped a dirty hand over her mouth. He was older looking, wore thick black framed glasses, and his suit was in tatters. The thing that startled Shelby the most about this man, though, was his blood red eyes staring down at her as she struggled. He didn’t seem to even register her movement as he stayed almost entirely still, until he grabbed her wrist, and bit down. 

Shelby, frozen in fear and pain and shock, couldn’t fathom what was even happening, let alone any way to help herself get out of this situation. 

Suddenly, a woman dropped down from the fire escape in that same alley, something any normal human being would’ve broken their ankle doing, but she ran towards Shelby and her attacker completely unfazed. 

She was tan, with dark hair and a pink faux fur coat that made her stand out under the single street lamp. If Shelby wasn’t so fearful and shellshocked, she would’ve thought she was pretty, beautiful even. 

She moved at an inhuman speed to reach the pair on the ground, and ripped the man from Shelby, tossing him into a dumpster so hard that his body made a dent in the metal. 

Golden eyes quickly flickered all over Shelby’s body, clearly assessing if she was hurt besides the bite on her arm, but no other damage had occurred. Only the intense burning of the bite mark, and an excruciating pain running through her bloodstream. 

“Okay, okay, hey, I’m going to have to pick you up, okay? I really don’t want to hurt you any more than you already are, but this is going to suck,” the stranger told her, and then she reached under Shelby to pick her up in a bridal carry. 

The burning in Shelby’s veins distracted from the movement of the stranger’s quick pace, but it soon got to be so painful that she started screaming and writhing. 

“Of course she has to be a screamer, Dot’s gonna kill me,” Shelby heard the stranger whisper before she felt the world fade to black. 

-

“If you all keep talking, you’re going to wake her up,” a stern voice spoke into the white noise of the room.

Shelby didn’t know where she was, all she knew was that her throat was burning. It was at least a nice change of pace from the fire in her entire body she felt the last time she was conscious, but she’d still rather not be burning at all. 

“If y’all have any water, that’d probably help me out the most,” Shelby drawled, her voice scratchy and unused. 

“I hate to break it to you, honey, but it’s not water you need,” the stranger’s voice replied, which Shelby found to be oddly comforting, at least she knew _someone_ in this room wasn’t out to hurt her more than she already was. 

Shelby finally peeled her eyes open and what she saw was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. 

First of all, she was in a room she didn’t recognize, surrounded by four women she didn’t recognize, and one she did. Before she could even ask who these women were, it was like her eyes were zooming in and picking out the tiniest details of everything in the room. She could read the tiny words on a map hanging on the far wall, she could see the individual fibers of the plant sitting in the corner. The sights became too overwhelming, so Shelby slammed her eyes shut again.

“What the hell is happening to me?” 

The other women in the room could hear the shake behind her southern accent, and exchanged a look. 

“Well, let’s start with the basics, my name is Dot, and I’m the leader of this coven. We’re a group of vampires who all live together and were all changed by me, we’re kinda like a family,” Dot paused and walked towards the bed where Shelby laid, eyes still squeezed shut. 

“When you were attacked five days ago, that was a vampire who attacked you. Fatin and I were in Texas following a lead on a group of rogues when she heard you screaming and saved you. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop the transformation, so you’re one of us now.” 

“I don’t want you to be scared, because there’s nothing to be scared of. We all just want what’s best for you now,” Dot finished, staring at Shelby, waiting for a reaction. 

“How am I supposed to not be scared when you just told me you’re all vampires, that I’m a vampire, and that I’ve been out for five days?” 

“Listen, no one’s asking you to be okay with this. We’re just asking you to cooperate with us; the last fucking thing we need is a newborn running around unsupervised,” a new voice spoke. 

“Lay off, Rachel, you remember how overwhelming the change is,” another voice whispered. 

Shelby slowly opened her eyes again, allowing them to adjust to their newfound sensitivity and perception. She couldn’t believe this was happening, but once she met the golden eyes of her savior, she felt calm. She felt safe here with this coven, as much as her head might tell her to run, her heart told her to stay. 

“Well, if I’m going to be a part of your coven, as you called it, I’m going to need to know some names,” Shelby finally spoke. 

“You already know me, I’m Fatin. I’ve been a vampire for 120 years, and was turned by Dorothy after she found me dying of the Spanish Flu. Medicine was absolutely horrible back then and the pandemic was a real bitch,” Fatin smiled as she moved towards Shelby, reaching out to grab her hand. Her hand was freezing, but Shelby assumed hers must be too. 

“I already told you a bit about me, I’m Dorothy, as Fatin likes to call me, but you can just call me Dot. Like I said, I’m the leader of the coven, and I’m responsible for changing everyone here. I was turned back in 1692 after I nearly burnt to death at the stake for being a witch. Turned out I was just the only woman in the village who could read,” Dot rolled her eyes playfully. 

The brunette who’d been standing behind both Dot and Fatin finally moved forward, “I’m Leah. Dot turned me about 50 years ago, I’m the youngest of everyone here. She found me after I was hit by a car and on the brink of death.”

“I’m Nora,” one of the only two remaining spoke, “and this is my sister Rachel. We’re actually biological twins, and Dot rescued us after a shark attack nearly killed us both. We’re just lucky Dot went for a swim and found Rachel’s hand, otherwise we’d have to have gotten her a hook.” 

Shelby laughed while the others just rolled their eyes, and Nora seemed to light up. 

“I’m Shelby, and I’m so glad y’all aren’t out to kill me, and I hate to cut the intros a bit short, but is there something we can do about the burning in my throat? You said we’re vampires, but does that mean I have to kill someone?” Shelby eyed them nervously, not sure she believed these nice women would be murderers, but stranger things have happened. 

“Oh, fuck no. We don’t actually drink human blood. Remember how your attacker had red eyes? That’s because he drinks human blood, but ours are gold because we drink animal blood. We’re like vegetarians, almost. Your eyes are red now, too, but they’ll change in a few weeks once we get you on our diet,” Fatin explained. 

Dot moved forward and clapped a hand onto her shoulder, “It’s time to go hunting, let’s go.” 

-

Turns out this type of “hunting” was so much different than what she used to do with her dad. There were no traps, no tents set up, no camouflage. All they had were these incredible bodies and the open forest. 

Along the way, Dot had informed her that they were now in a place called Forks, Washington, which is where the coven’s permanent home is. Dot seemed surprised when Shelby barely batted an eye at the fact that her whole family was left behind in Texas believing her to be dead, but there wasn’t time to unpack all of Shelby’s family trauma while speeding through the woods. 

Shelby couldn’t believe the speed she had, and how freeing it was. She zipped through the trees, keeping pace with Dot and Fatin, with Nora laughing up ahead. Shelby was so distracted by the feel of her feet barely hitting the forest floor that she slammed into a tree at full force. Shelby couldn’t believe her eyes when it cracked in half and landed with a gigantic bang. She was almost entirely unscathed, except for a small crack that ran along her cheekbone where she’d slammed face-first into the tree. 

She touched the crack and stared wide-eyed at Dot, hoping her new life wasn’t already about to be cut short, but just as soon as the crack appeared, she felt it closing beneath her fingers. 

“So, being a vampire is kinda like being made out of stone,” Dot explained, “We could be ripped apart limb from limb, but as long as we aren’t burned, we survive. The downside to the whole ‘made of stone’ thing is that we kinda sparkle in the sun.” 

“Sparkle? Isn’t that a little, I dunno, lame?” 

“It definitely doesn’t scream ‘apex predator,’ that’s for sure,” Rachel said with a huge eye roll and clear impatience in her voice, “Can we continue now, please? Newbie isn’t the only one who’s hungry.” 

They continued their run through the woods, when Shelby caught on a scent. Her eyes flashed and she zipped off, leaving the rest of the coven in her dust. 

She continued to run and run and run, so much so that she heard the other girls calling her name and telling her to stop, but she couldn’t. 

Finally, she found the object of her chase, a giant deer standing in a clearing. She reached it and sunk her now oversized and sharp canines into the deer’s neck and tackled it to the ground. When she was finished, she was covered in blood and felt almost feral, before she herself was tackled to the ground. 

This time, she knew she had the strength to fight back whatever or whoever was on top of her, and she threw them off. 

Her eyes finally focused, and what she saw stopped her in her tracks. 

Her attacker was a girl, a bit short, but with clear chords of muscle thrumming through her body. She was tan with long dark hair that was currently up in a ponytail, and with a large circular tattoo on one shoulder. She was almost snarling at her, which took Shelby aback, but what struck her the most was how beautiful she was. She was absolutely stunning, and she made Shelby feel all the emotions Becca used to make her feel but amplified by what felt like a million. 

Her moment was broken by what sounded almost like a stampede coming towards her, and Shelby’s eyes landed on a group of giant wolves all skidding to a stop in the clearing next to the girl. 

The arrival of the wolves must’ve been the final straw for Dot, who finally crossed whatever invisible line she was behind to go stand in front of Shelby. 

“Jacob, I’m so sorry about this. She’s our newest member, literally just woke up today, and she doesn’t quite know all the rules yet,” Dot placated with her hands in the air. 

In that moment, the sun broke through the trees and into the clearing, making both Dot and Shelby sparkle, and the wolves' shiny coats glisten. 

Shelby moved her eyes from Dot’s sparkling hands to the girl once more, and noticed her staring back too, looking awed. Shelby’s lips twitched into a smile, but the girl schooled her face into a sneer. 

Suddenly, Dot broke their connection by grabbing her arm and yanking her to her feet. Dot dragged her back over the invisible boundary, but Shelby’s eyes stayed on the girl’s retreating form the entire way back.


	2. i see right through you any hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shelby bonds with her coven, we learn a bit about everyone's special abilities, and then we briefly visit the res towards the end. 
> 
> i decided to just update every day, so i hope that's okay with y'all :) also, see if you can catch all the twilight references in each chapter, i tried to fit as many in as i could
> 
> chapter title is from eyes on fire by blue foundation from the twilight soundtrack

Shelby was currently staring at herself in the mirror. 

Originally, she was surprised that she could still see herself, that was until Fatin laughed at her for believing in that old wives tale about vampires. 

She looked in the mirror and saw someone who looked like her, but also didn’t. She lifted her top lip with her fingers and felt around her teeth, paying special attention to where she used to be missing two of them. She no longer needed her retainer, since her transformation made two teeth appear out of nowhere, giving her a perfect smile. 

Her dad would be _so_ happy. Just that thought made her shiver. 

She also couldn’t ignore her extended canine teeth. They weren’t ridiculously different, seeing as vampires still needed to blend into normal society and they couldn’t exactly have giant scary teeth, but they were definitely different enough for it to change how Shelby’s face looked. 

Where before her strong jaw, long blonde hair, and big green eyes made people look twice in admiration, they now would look at her new teeth paired with her amber colored eyes, not quite rid of the red yet, and see someone to be feared. She looked dangerous, and she looked powerful. 

She kinda liked it. 

-

It’s been a week since Shelby’s first hunting trip, but more importantly, since she first saw her. She’s all Shelby has been able to think about, even sneaking into her daydreams and her thoughts. She thinks the other girls have probably noticed, but she almost doesn’t care. 

When they got back from their hunting excursion, Dot had explained the situation with the boundaries and the wolves. 

Turns out, they were a tribe of Native shifters that live on the reservation that have been there for even longer than Dot has. When she moved to Forks, Dot negotiated a treaty with the leader of the tribe, Jacob Black, which stated that the vampires could live undisturbed in Forks as long as they never crossed onto the reservation, and as long as they never fed from humans. 

Rachel was absolutely fuming about the whole situation. Ranting and raving about how Shelby was out to get them killed, or at least kicked out of her favorite of their homes. Nora later approached Shelby to apologize for Rachel, telling her that this family is the most important thing Rachel has ever had, and her fierce protectiveness can cause some intense anger. 

“She’ll get over it, I promise,” Nora said with a small smile, “and soon she’ll be just as protective of you.” 

The only subjects that were touchy were the wolves, obviously, but also the reason they were in Texas in the first place. Dot had mentioned the rogues briefly, but any mention of them from Shelby would prompt a quick subject change.

Of course, it was just like Shelby to think non-stop about someone it was made very clear that she could never get to know. The thought of never even learning the name of the girl from the woods haunted her, and it made her sleepless nights even longer. All she could think of was her father telling her that she’d always be alone, and how, despite her new immortal family, that seemed to be her destiny in her love life. 

-

The house that they lived in was insane. Shelby lived in a really nice house with her family back home, but this house put their three story $500,000 home to shame. 

There wasn’t a room in the house that didn’t have floor to ceiling windows, and despite their lack of actual food consumption, the kitchen was absolutely gorgeous. Shelby would often sit in the kitchen and think about her old life. 

It hadn’t been that long since she was a fully mortal teenage girl dealing with a horrible family situation and terrible guilt about who she was and who she had to be. 

But, she wasn’t that girl anymore. Now, she could move faster than the human eye could see, she was stronger than even her fitness obsessed father, and she was living with people who fully loved and supported her, as much as they could after only knowing her for a week. 

Over this single week, she’d gotten to spend some time with nearly every single one of them.

Dot spent time helping Shelby to get her thirst under control, and especially with controlling her strength. The door to Shelby’s room hadn’t made it past the first hour of her living in the house; she accidentally chucked it across the hall right into Rachel’s door, which ended in an almost-brawl between the two of them. Nora took Rachel out for an overnight hunt after that happened, while Dot fixed both doors. 

Fatin spent time with Shelby telling her about some of the other places the coven had lived. At first, when it was just Dot and Fatin, they lived in Europe, moving every time they started to look much too young for the age they were supposed to be. Then, they moved to the US in the 1930’s, and have been hopping between four different homes ever since. 

“Forks is our favorite,” Fatin told Shelby, “This is the only house that Dot really feels calm and comfortable in, and the lack of sunshine certainly helps us avoid looking like we covered ourselves in highlighter.” 

Shelby and Nora had gotten into the habit of just sitting together sometimes. Since none of them could sleep, most of the members of the coven would just spend the nights having some alone time in the rooms. Shelby found the nights the loneliest, when her past would come bubbling up like bile in her throat, so she would go sit out in the living room just looking out at the still forest. 

After the first night, Nora would join her. 

Nora had a quiet about her that Shelby found comforting. She was quiet but she was always observing, always seemed to know what people were feeling. 

“Your eyes are finally golden,” Nora had mentioned one night, “Strength looks good on you.” 

She said that as if it were the most casual thing in the world, but also as if she could see right through Shelby. As if she could see her kissing Becca, as if she could see the hatred in her dad’s eyes behind her own. 

-

Shelby felt considerably lighter ever since leaving Texas and knowing she doesn’t have to go back. 

She walked out onto the balcony of the beautiful window-filled home the coven occupied, looking out over the woods and enjoying the night air. 

She heard someone come up beside her, and was surprised to see Leah. She mostly kept to herself in the home, it seemed. The only time Shelby actually saw her interacting with anyone was when she was cuddled up to Dot or Fatin, or even sometimes both, and it always made Shelby quirk an eyebrow, but who was she to judge? Her father had condemned her to hell so long ago that nothing really felt scandalous anymore. 

“You know, usually the first thing someone asks is ‘where’s my family?’” Leah said, looking out at the forest. 

“I don’t have the greatest family to go back to, I guess I was almost excited that I never have to see them again,” Shelby replied, looking at Leah who refused to make eye contact. 

“The funny thing is, we’ve heard that story before, but all that came from it was pain and suffering, and I won’t let it happen again. So, tell me, why the fuck are you here?” Leah finally looked over at Shelby, and she could see the distrust that had been building over the week all culminating into one death glare. 

“If you wanted to know my sob story, all you had to do was ask,” Shelby was on the defensive now, “Before Fatin saved me, I was about one wrong look away from being kicked out of my house. Daddy was a preacher, Mom let him get away with anything, and my best friend Becca was missing. She disappeared after we kissed and Daddy caught us,” Shelby’s voice grew quieter and quieter. 

Leah’s face softened, looking a little sheepish after her accusatory tone. Shelby continued to stare Leah down, letting her own eyes show the pain she used to live with daily, the pain she still finds herself wallowing in. Shelby had finally gotten a family that she had always wanted, and she wasn’t going to hide her painful story, especially if it meant that there would be an air of suspicion around her that would drive a wedge between her and Leah. 

“I- I’m sorry. We’ve just been burned before, is all. I just don’t want to see them hurt again,” Leah apologized. She looked at someone over Shelby’s shoulder and shared a look with them.

Shelby turned around and saw Fatin standing in the doorway, looking between the two of them with a small smile. 

Leah seemed to take a cue from Fatin and made her way back into the house, and Fatin came and took her place. 

“Sorry about Leah, she goes through these moods and none of us can seem to read her, even Nora,” then a deep breath, “She goes dark on me, and I have to pull her out.” 

“I just can’t help but wonder, what happened to put everyone so on edge? Rachel seems like she always wants to pull one of my arms off and Leah just gave me the third degree.” 

“I… I can’t tell you just yet. It’s important that we wait until we figure out your special ability before we should tell you,” Fatin sighed, “I promise, you’ll know soon.” 

“...Special ability?” Shelby cracked a smile. 

“Oh baby, you don’t even know the half of it,” Fatin smirked, throwing an arm around Shelby and leading her back inside. 

-

Turns out, when Fatin said special ability, she _meant it._ And not even just ridiculous abilities like being able to differentiate between different types of fabric based on the look of the fibers, which was apparently just a fun perk. 

No, Fatin meant some superhero type shit. 

Nora was gifted with the ability to read peoples’ emotions. She could look into someone’s eyes and almost see exactly what they were feeling at any moment, which is why she seemed to be able to look right through Shelby. Because, she basically could. 

Rachel was gifted with the ability to send electric currents through her entire body, meaning that if someone were to touch her, they’d get electrocuted. When introducing the gifts, Fatin joked that that’s the reason she runs so hot all the time, Rachel didn’t think it was all that funny, and Fatin got a shock for that one. 

Leah’s ability is to be a mental shield. She’s impervious to any vampire’s gift, especially since most of them involve mental manipulation in the first place. Nora can’t read her emotions since Leah just blocks her out. 

Dot’s gift was less of a supernatural power and more of an enhanced sense, one that was already there in her human life, but was heightened even beyond that of a normal vampire when she was turned. She has the gift of compassion, which helps her to resist human blood, and makes her an incredible leader to the coven. 

Fatin has a similar gift to Dot’s, not really an ability, but just an enhancement on a trait she already has. She’s got the gift of passion, which enhances her naturally empathetic and emotional side, and allows her to easily open up to people and show her true feelings. Nora rarely has to use her gift on her, seeing as she wears her emotions on her sleeve. 

Shelby hadn’t presented a power yet, or at least not that anyone knew of. She hadn’t had any visions, she couldn’t read minds, and she definitely couldn’t electrocute anyone. 

“Don’t worry, Shelb, I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon. It took me a long time to realize what mine was,” Dot reassured her before moving to go to bed. 

“Oh shit, I forgot to tell you, we start senior year tomorrow!” Dot called behind her, “We’ll fill you in on the backstory in the morning, goodnight!” 

Shelby turned to Fatin, “Wait, how many times have y’all done senior year?” 

-

Meanwhile, at the reservation, the wolves were having a very important meeting. 

“Jacob, what do you mean we’ll be going to Forks High? We always go to school on the res, that way I never have to deal with the fucking colonizers,” Toni snapped at Jacob, “And it’s not even just the colonizers, the vampires are back in town, and we all know they’re going to pretend to be high schoolers again.” 

“Toni, calm down, it’ll be okay,” Martha, Toni’s best friend, grasped her hand, “We can just go to school, keep our heads down, and just do what we can to graduate as quickly as possible, okay?” 

Martha and Toni grew up on the reservation together. They’re not biologically related, but they might as well be. Martha’s mom, one of the tribe elders, practically raised Toni and saved her from the system on more than one occasion. 

Recently, Martha had learned to shift, and was pretty much a master at it at this point. She could go on runs with their friends Leah and Seth Clearwater, and she was officially a part of Jacob’s pack, and she answered to him. 

Toni, on the other hand, had yet to shift. She had been waiting all spring for her 17th birthday to arrive and for her to shift, but it never came. Turning 17 came and went and still nothing. It had been almost six months now, and she felt like the runt of the pack. 

It was even more humiliating when that blood sucker crossed over onto her land, and she nearly killed herself trying to stop her. Of course, the entire pack rolled up and handled it then, but not without seriously bruising Toni’s already shattered ego. 

Toni squeezed Martha’s hand, shared a look with Jacob, and said, “Fine, but I’m not going to be nice to them.” 

“That’s fine with me, just don’t go starting fights. I don’t want to have to hear shit from Dot before they decide to move again, clear?” 

“Crystal,” Toni rolled her eyes and left the room with Martha trailing behind her. 

Tomorrow was going to _suck._


	3. a neutron star collision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> someone unexpected shows up in forks, shelby presents a potential power, and shelby and toni finally meet for real. 
> 
> thank y’all so much for the love and support for this fic, i’m so happy that everyone is enjoying it :) also glad that i’m not the only one still in my twilight phase in 2021. 
> 
> also! like i said last chapter, spot the twilight reference, and also all the girls’ powers from last chapter are canon twilight powers that vamps in the series have, and so is shelby’s, if that helps with any guesses 
> 
> chapter title is from neutron star collision by muse from the eclipse soundtrack

Not having to wake up for school was definitely a weird thing for Shelby. She’d always had to wake up hours before school to make sure not a single hair was out of place and that she looked her part or her father would not be happy. 

Here, though, everyone trickled down the stairs about an hour before they had to leave, but only to get Shelby’s story straight before she was thrust into a totally new school in a totally new town where she had to pretend she was _totally_ a human. 

“Okay, first of all we’re going to put Vicks up your nose,” at Shelby’s reaction, Dot continued, “It’s so you can’t smell the blood of the other students. Trust me, this works great, but you’ve also got a pretty good start, I mean you handled yourself super well around the wolves last week.” 

Dot doesn’t need to know that her only restraint came because she was simply too enthralled with the tan girl to even think about drinking any of their blood. 

“So the story is that we’re all kids from some houses on the outskirts of town. No one needs to know any more than that, especially because then they’ll start asking about parents and shit, and it’ll start to get messy,” Fatin continued. 

“Oh! And if anyone asks where you’re originally from, don’t lie. Texas is a great answer because there’s no hiding that accent,” Dot said. 

“Am I allowed to hang out with you guys at school?” Shelby asked, which was honestly her main concern. 

Back in Texas, she’d always been the popular girl with loads of friends, a conventionally attractive boyfriend, and enough people that knew of her to make her halfway famous in their small southern town. None of that was real, though. None of the friendships were real, Andrew was a glorified beard at best, and her ‘celebrity’ only came from her pageant achievements and her dad’s status. 

Still, that didn’t mean that she wanted to look like the loser new kid today. 

“Of course you can! There should be at least one of us in each of your classes, Dorothy made sure of it, so don’t be afraid to stick with us today,” Fatin finished, “Also, we all have our own cars, but you can catch a ride with me today. It just helps appearances if we all don’t ride in the same car.” 

“Plus, I have swim practice after school, so I will be a lot later today than everyone else,” Rachel chimed in. 

“Wait, isn’t that like, cheating?” Shelby asked, looking at Rachel almost in disbelief. 

Rachel smirked as she shouldered past Shelby, “It’s more fun that way.” 

Fatin shrugged and led Shelby out to her car, a bright red Lambo, while Dot climbed in a shiny Volvo, Leah jumped in a black Jeep, and Nora calmered into Rachel’s pick-up truck. 

“Senior year x10, here we go,” Fatin joked as they drove off. 

-

The ride to school was almost uneventful and normal, which would’ve been a first in Shelby’s new life since being turned. 

It was almost normal until Shelby saw someone downtown that, if it was still beating, would’ve made her heart stop.

There, walking across a crosswalk in between the tackle shop and the 7/11 was Becca Gilroy. 

Shelby wished she could say she looked the same as the day she went missing, but she didn’t. She looked different in the way that Shelby did now, dangerous and just a tiny bit more perfect than she used to be. 

The whole encounter lasted but a second before she grabbed Fatin’s arm and told her to stop the car. 

“Dude, we have to go to school, what is your problem?” Fatin asked without taking her eyes off the road, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation. 

“Fatin, I am asking you right now to trust me, okay? We need to stop this damn car; I just saw a girl who’s been missing from my home town for six months,” Shelby said, voice deathly serious. 

At her tone, Fatin took her seriously and pulled over on the side of the road. 

By this time, Becca was behind them on the sidewalk, and Shelby could see her in her rear view mirror. She pulled out the new phone Dot had given her and took a picture of her reflection, so she had proof she wasn’t crazy, and then proceeded to just _stare_. 

The last time Shelby saw Becca was the day before she went missing, which was a day after they kissed. Shelby had acted horribly to her, shoved her, sent her away, said the worst things imaginable to her. Now, here she was, in the same town Shelby had been taken to, and looking specifically vampiric. 

Her hair was still as curly as it always was, though it was hidden under a dark black hoodie, but Shelby could still make out her freckles beneath the shadows. 

“Shelby, if this is really your missing friend, this is serious,” Fatin spoke so softly that if Shelby didn’t have super hearing, she knew she wouldn’t be able to hear her, “Part of the reason Dorothy and I were even in Texas the night we found you was because of a trail of missing teenage girls we were tracking. There was a distinct pattern of taking a girl from a small enough town that their disappearance wouldn’t be picked up by large media outlets, but we were following all the cases as they would come up.” 

“Fatin, I swear on all that is holy, that is Becca Gilroy,” Shelby whispered just as quietly. 

She looked at Fatin briefly, and when she turned back to the mirror, Becca was nowhere to be found. She quickly scanned her entire surroundings, but she must’ve dipped into an alley and vanished. Again. 

Shelby felt like she was going to cry, knew that she had to cry, but nothing was happening. 

“Fatin,” Shelby said desperately between heaving breaths that should’ve been sobs,“Why can’t I cry?” 

Fatin just looked at her with such pity, “It’s unfortunately a side effect of vampirism, the only fluid our body actually produces is venom, but don’t worry Shelby, I fully believe you, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.” 

Fatin looked so determined in that moment that Shelby actually believed her. 

She believed her more than any cop that had come to investigate Becca’s disappearance, and she believed her more than she believed her father when he said he was praying for Becca’s safe return. 

“I hate to have to do this to you, but we have to go to school. The more normal we can make ourselves look, the easier it will be to track this Becca down under the radar without her fleeing, I’m so sorry Shelby,” Fatin said, looking genuinely hurt. 

Shelby took a deep breath and nodded her head, “Let’s just get this over with.” 

-

So far, Shelby’s classes have breezed by. 

She’s had at least one coven member in each of her classes, and has been able to lean on them as she reels from the morning still. She’s been lucky the girls have been by her side; she doesn’t know how many more times she can hear, “Aren’t people from Texas supposed to be, like, really tan?” before she accidentally kills a well-meaning teenage girl. 

Of course, though, the rest of the day could not just go on without incident. 

It was gym class, and this was the only class Shelby shared with the girl from the forest. She was attached at the hip to another tan girl, who she assumed was also from the reservation. 

Shelby had tried to sit out this class, since she wasn’t sure she could keep her strength under control for a normal game of dodgeball with fragile humans, but the gym teacher wasn’t hearing it, so here she stood in a Forks High gym shirt and the ugliest blue shorts she’d ever had the displeasure of wearing. 

“Okay, team captains will be Jessica Stanley and… how about Toni Shalifoe?” The gym teacher announced, leaving the teenagers to sort themselves out while he went to go sit in the corner and ‘supervise.’ 

“Sorry, I don’t know any names yet, I’m not trying to be rude,” Toni announced, getting a few laughs out of her classmates. 

The team picking commenced but all Shelby could think was ‘Toni, Toni, Toni’ until she heard, “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name, but you come on over here.” 

Jessica Stanely was dragging her away from Toni and onto her team, but all Shelby could do was continue to stare. 

-

The games of dodgeball that they played so far in class were actually fun. 

Shelby hung around the back and threw the balls as softly as she could, but eventually, her competitive streak caught up to her. 

I mean, you don’t become a 4x Miss Teenage Texas Champion by _not_ being competitive. 

She was one of only two players left standing on her team when her partner was taken out by a ball directly to the face. All that was left on the court was her and Toni on the other side of the line. Toni had most of the balls hoarded to her side, a classic strategy, but Shelby knew what her move had to be. 

She dodged Toni’s throw (if she used a tiny bit of super speed, no one noticed), and she grabbed that ball off the floor. As soon as she saw Toni turn around to go get another ball from the ground, she fired. 

Except, she forgot that she was now a super powered vampire with an arm that could chuck a car across a highway. 

The ball landed on Toni’s back, and sent her tumbling forward. She slammed onto the ground, and a distinct _crack_ could be heard. Shelby’s hands flew to her mouth before she was running over to the girl, not fully understanding the intense draw to her, but knew she had to help. 

Toni peeled herself off the floor, blood gushing from her nose, and rolled over, only to be face to face with the bloodsucker that did this to her. 

Toni was so angry that she was practically vibrating, but she knew that if she caused a huge scene, Jacob would have her doing everyone’s yards for a month. So, she did the only thing that came to mind, and spat the blood that was flowing down her face directly onto Shelby’s. 

Only one problem, Toni forgot that she was a vampire. 

For some reason, rather than the resentment she was feeling just a minute ago, she now had an urgent need to protect Shelby from whatever she was about to do, because a baby vamp with that much blood near her would not lead to _anything_ good. 

Shelby was sitting motionless, unsure of what to do, but she didn’t feel an insane thirst like Dot had described to her. All she felt was the need to flee. In her mind's eye, she saw the perfect path out of the school and to the parking lot, away from immediate danger. 

Once the path cleared from her vision, she was able to look into Toni’s eyes, which looked considerably softer than they had just a moment ago, and she, for a reason unbeknownst to her, whispered, “I know what to do.” 

And with that, she fled. 

-

Once Shelby made it outside. She was met by Nora, who grabbed her by the shoulders and walked her to the side of the school, where they would be out of sight. 

“Shelby, tell me what happened,” Nora pleaded, “Please, I can feel your panic but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.” 

Shelby couldn’t focus, “How’d you get out here so fast?” 

Her eyes kept darting around, looking for _something_ , but she didn’t even know what at this point. 

“Shelby, you have to tell me why you’re covered in blood, please,” Nora pushed, still holding onto her arms. 

“I’m okay, Nora, just a little shaken, is all. Nothing terrible happened, I promise, I just lost control of my strength for a moment,” Shelby said, but she couldn’t meet Nora’s eyes, still searching, beyond where Nora was trying to make eye contact. 

They then heard one of the school’s doors slam open, and loud footsteps hitting the pavement, “Hey! Are you out here? I… I’m sorry I never got your name!” the voice was getting closer, “It’s Toni, and I just want to make sure you’re okay!” 

Shelby stepped out of Nora’s embrace and rounded the corner of the school again, and nearly ran into Toni. 

They were nearly chest to chest at this point, though with the height difference Shelby had to look down a bit to look into Toni’s eyes. 

“It’s Shelby,” she nearly whispered, “I’m sorry I hit you so hard, I’m still getting used to all this.” 

“Shelby,” she said it like a prayer, “It’s okay, I understand. I’m just glad you didn’t go crazy and kill me in there. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a newborn with your willpower before.” 

“I.. I guess I just didn’t feel the urge, the only thing I felt was the need to run away,” Shelby replied. 

They were broken out of their own little world when the bell rang, indicating the end of the school day. 

Nora was instantly behind Shelby, just to make sure she was in grabbing distance in case she _did_ have a reaction to the blood and especially to the crowd. Dot, Fatin, and Leah were walking out of the building together, but the moment Dot saw Shelby covered in blood splatter, she nearly ran over to her. 

“Are you okay? What happened?” She looked between Shelby and Toni with confusion clear on her face, and Toni took that as her chance to leave. Shelby watched her as she found Martha and they made their way to a truck in the far end of the parking lot. 

“Hey! Earth to Shelby, care to tell me why you’re covered in blood?” Dot tried again, and Shelby finally answered her, and explained everything. 

Dot seemed stuck on how strong Shelby’s urge to flee was, and decided that when they got back to the house, she was going to ask Leah to look through her library to see if there are any powers related to that kind of reaction. 

On their way to where their cars were parked, Shelby whispered to Dot, “I don’t know what’s goin’ on with me, but I apologize for whatever the hell that was. Also, when we get home, I have something crazy to tell you.”


	4. deep into the darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> buckle up, this is a lot of exposition. shelby learns the evil plot that brought becca to forks, and dot decides they can't face this all alone. 
> 
> title is from monsters by hurricane bells from the new moon soundtrack

“And this is the same girl that went missing from your hometown like six months ago? You’re sure?” Dot kept looking between the sorta blurry rear view mirror picture Shelby took that morning and the photographer. 

“Dorothy, I was there, I saw the girl myself, she looked exactly like those missing persons fliers,” Fatin moved to stand behind Dot and put her hands on her shoulders. 

Leah was on the floor in front of the couch, sitting between Dot and Shelby, while Rachel anxiously paced across the floor, and Nora sat across the room on the recliner by the windows. 

The mood in the room was extremely tense. Shelby wasn’t quite sure what the implications were of Becca’s sudden appearance, but just going by how everyone was currently acting, it wasn’t good. 

“We’re all thinking the same thing, right? That this is absolutely Gretchen again,” Leah finally spoke, “And don’t look at me like I’m crazy, because I’m not fucking crazy; Gretchen has been known to do stranger things than bring girls to Forks.” 

“...Who’s Gretchen?” Shelby asked, and every set of golden eyes was suddenly trained on her. 

“I think it’s time we tell her, babe,” Fatin said to Dot, not taking her eyes off of Shelby since she spoke up. 

Dot let out a long, suffering sigh, “I know you’re right, but I just wish we knew what her ability was before we filled her in. I don’t want her to accidentally project everything we know to the whole entire vampire community.” 

“I know, but after what happened at school, it sure sounds like she has the self-preservation gift. If Leah’s research is right, which it always is,” Fatin reasoned, “I think it’s safe to say that, if anything, her instincts would be to _not_ share what we know, if it’s in the interest of keeping herself safe.” 

“Alright, you’re right, let’s get this over with then,” Dot proceeded to pretend to crack her neck, then looked directly at Shelby, “You better sit down, this is gonna be a lot of exposition.” 

“In order to tell you everything, we have to go back to when I was first turned. I told you that I was turned after being nearly burnt to death at the stake, and the only reason I even survived it was because of Gretchen. Back then, she was known by a different name, a much older one, but I couldn’t even tell you what it was now. All I know is that she was there the moment I woke up, and she coached me just like I coached you. 

Once I was fully trained and in control of myself, Gretchen told me that she wanted me to be a part of her coven. She wanted to create an all-female coven, one that was strong enough to overthrow the vampire government, called the Volturi, and take control of the entire vampire world. She believed that it was the vampire species’ right to hunt on humans as they pleased, and to not worry about potential exposure. 

At first, that was her only goal: to be able to live life as a vampire freely and without consequences from the Volturi, but eventually she wanted more. She now is hell bent on not only destroying the Volturi and creating her own violence government regime, but also on destroying as many humans as possible. She’s also out to kill as many shifters as she can, as she subscribes to the ancient feud that most of us have forgotten long ago. 

She needed someone with my extraordinary control to help her in training and recruiting more girls. She was always looking for more vampires, and specifically, ones with special abilities. 

I didn’t even believe in the things she wanted, especially when her plans continued to get more violent, but I was young and scared and living in this new body that I didn’t understand, and I wanted someone to help me deal with it. 

I almost didn’t believe she would ever actually do it, since it was all talk until she started to get much too violent for me, turning girls who weren’t already dying, trying to gain numbers faster and faster. 

Eventually, one of the girls she turned, Rosalie Hale, decided to turn Gretchen in for her crimes of high treason against the Volturi, and she was sentenced to eternity in prison. 

This betrayal of her leader landed Rosalie a spot in the Volturi all those years ago, and now she’s actually in charge, along with her wife Bella, and Alice and Edward Cullen. 

It’s extremely important that they remain in charge of the Volturi, because they’re our friends. You don’t want to be enemies with the leaders of the free vamp world, trust me.” 

Dot paused for a moment, seeming to collect her thoughts and decide what to tell Shelby next.

“Anyway, recently, about a year ago, Gretchen escaped from Voltera in Italy where she was imprisoned. She apparently had some allies in the Volturi guard that went rogue and let her escape right under the Volturi’s noses, which got them torn apart and burned for their crimes. 

This is where you come in. We were in Texas that night investigating a string of missing girls in small towns in the south, ultimately leading us to your hometown, and to the case of Becca Gilroy. We think Gretchen and her team kidnapped her and turned her, then forced her to join her ranks. Same as so many of the other girls that have gone missing. 

The night that you were attacked, the person who attacked you was actually a part of Gretchen’s army, his name is Dr. Daniel Faber,” Shelby cut Dot off there. 

“Wait, I thought you said she only wanted women?” 

“We think she’s gotten desperate,” Rachel replied, “She doesn’t seem to care _who_ backs her anymore, just as long as they care about her overthrowing the Volturi.” 

“ _Anyway_ , the only reason we even know about any of this is because of Jeanette. 

She was a newborn vampire that wound up in Forks about three months ago, and she actually asked if she could stay with us. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but I should’ve known how strange it was that she even knew who we were. 

She stayed with us and for a while it was fine, but one night I caught her rummaging through Leah’s library, which contains hundreds of books on vampire lore and law, and especially about known powers and abilities, and even who has them. It’s the most extensive and accurate collection of vampire literature probably in the world besides the one at Voltera, and the information in it is extremely rare. 

She was taking pictures of the abilities and texting them to someone when I caught her. She was startled, but then lunged at me. We fought throughout the whole house, with Rachel even jumping in to help me, but _damn_ is she powerful. 

She has the ability to project pain into a single person’s mind, and make anyone crumble to the floor. Thankfully, Leah returned to the house right on time to project her shield ability onto me so Rachel and I could fight her off at the same time. 

She got away, but at least we finally knew what Gretchen was up to, and who the targets ultimately were. We’ve been trying to get ahead of them ever since.” 

After Dot’s explanation, the room was silent. Each girl seemed to be reflecting on the information, and Shelby just needed a minute to absorb it all. 

After all, it’s not every day that you find out your ex-best friend who you were in love with is now a part of a creepy vampire cult hell bent on taking over the vampire world. 

“So,” Shelby finally broke the silence, “what’s the plan, Dottie?” 

“I think we’re going to have to do what I’ve been holding off on doing for some time… we’re going to have to call Jacob,” the collective groans were all Shelby needed to hear to know that this plan was going to be _interesting_. 

-

“...And that’s what we’re up against,” Dot finished explaining the entire story of Gretchen and her new army to Jacob’s pack, laying out the true danger behind her intentions. 

“I just want to emphasize, if Gretchen does take over the Volturi, none of us are safe. We’ve been extremely lucky that the Cullens believe in our way of life, and even participate in it; I can’t imagine the bloodshed if Gretchen were to take over,” Rachel spoke up, her face deathly serious. 

“Okay. So, we’ve got this horrible villain to go up against, what do we do now? We know she has lackeys here in Forks, do we just have to take turns tracking them down?” Seth spoke up from Jacob’s side of the clearing. 

Despite the good terms the pack and the coven were on, there was still a clear line drawn in the sand between where the vampires stood and where the wolves stood. As much as Shelby wanted to pay attention to what was going on, she couldn’t stop looking at Toni, who was sitting on the ground next to Martha, playing with the grass, but her eyes firmly on her pack leader. 

Shelby, despite not knowing much about Toni at this point besides this innate connection they seem to share, couldn’t help but watch her and pick up on the little details of who she was. 

How she sat with her legs out in front of her, how she played with the grass between her legs, how she let the blades drift between each finger, how her eyes remained trained on Jacob the whole time, except for when Martha would brush against her shoulder occasionally. 

“I propose that we pair up and guard certain locations that they’ve been known to hide. We know that they love to run around downtown, they know where our home in the woods is, and they definitely know about the reservation and the beach. 

I suggest Rachel stays to guard our home, since her powers tend to draw a lot of attention that we don’t need in public, and how about Leah Clearwater stays with her?” At Jacob’s nod of approval, Dot continues, “Okay, Jacob, how about you and I watch the downtown area. I can get out of school since I have enough credits to take half days this year, so I’ll be available during the day to wander around Forks.” 

“Fatin, you, Seth, and our Leah can guard the reservation, especially since you two are the fastest among all of us and can cover ground quickly. We should probably have people guarding the school too, so Martha and Nora can take lead on that. Shelby, you’ll be paired with Toni at the beach. Since you’ve got your self-preservation power, you can protect Toni since she hasn’t shifted yet,” Dot finished, leaving no room for argument. 

Shelby, herself, was thrilled. Hours to just hang out on the beach with Toni and finally get to know her, finally get to explore this strange connection that she can’t seem to break? Sounded great to her. 

She looked over at the object of her affections to find that she was angrily glaring at the ground, ripping up the grass she was once being so delicate with. Martha had a placating hand on her arm, but it wasn’t doing much to calm Toni down.

“Okay, if that’s all we need, then I say we split up and get to our stations. Since it’s Saturday, we should all be free to take our shifts and keep an eye on everything. Obviously, the treaty is still in effect, but vampires will be allowed on our territory until further notice, at least until we take this bitch down,” Jacob said, motioning for everyone to go their separate ways. 

Seth stood up and walked over to Toni, who stood up as well, and clapped a hand on her shoulder, “You’re lucky! You got La Push, baby, _La Push_.” 

Seth barked out a laugh and went to meet Fatin and Leah to head back to the reservation, Toni didn’t find it quite as amusing. 

Martha stepped away to meet up with Nora, and Toni slowly walked over to where Shelby was standing. 

“You ready, bloodsucker?” Toni asked as she approached her. 

Before Shelby could even respond, Toni started walking away, into the woods and towards La Push, which was on the edge of the reservation. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” Shelby said to herself, disappointed that there was once again a wedge between the two of them.


	5. when i caught myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shelby and toni bond at the beach.
> 
> this chapter begins the 'canon typical violence' aspect of this fic. in twilight canon, vampires don't bleed and they're basically made of stone, so they can be ripped apart and there's no gore, and unless they're burned, they can be put back together. just wanted to warn y'all, but it's just like the twilight movies and they're pg-13, so it's not too bad. 
> 
> title is from i caught myself by paramore from the twilight soundtrack

Finally on the beach, Shelby and Toni sat together on a piece of driftwood and stared out at the water. Toni was angrily picking at the bark of the wood, thinking thoughts so loud and clearly frustrated that Shelby didn’t have to have Nora’s power to know something was up. 

She wasn’t going to pry, though. ‘You barely know this girl,’ she had to remind herself. 

“I’m not some kind of runt, you know,” Toni finally snapped into the tense air between them, “I don’t need your coward powers to protect me.” 

Shelby was confused, she never said anything about Toni being weak, on the contrary actually. Shelby was impressed by her ability to take her down the first time they met with her own brute force alone, no shifting necessary. 

_Oh._

Shelby thought back to what Dot said, ‘she hasn’t shifted yet.’ 

Shelby looked over at the other girl, at the way her shoulders were tense and her biceps were flexing as she ripped the bark apart, “I don’t think you’re weak, Toni.” 

Toni’s head snapped to look at her, “I don’t need your pity,” she spat, “I get enough looks like that at home.” 

“Do they know why?” Shelby asked, pushing Toni, “Why you can’t…?”

The entire tribe had never seen a shifter pass their 17th birthday and just _not shift_. Especially a spitfire like Toni, who was already full of the hot-headed attitude that normally came around a wolf’s first shift. As the months went by without any sign of a change in Toni, she started to be treated differently. People were more delicate with her, they wouldn’t talk about the pack, even Martha shied away from telling Toni about what she, Leah, and Seth did over the weekend. 

It made Toni’s blood boil. 

“No,” Toni snapped, “Does it even matter? I can’t do it, knowing why won’t fucking change it.”

What Toni wasn’t going to tell Shelby was that they thought it was tied to her anger issues, and her over emotional tendencies. She saw the way the tribal elders watched her with nervous looks, waiting for her to snap at any moment. She knew they feared the day she had access to an extremely powerful form, and was also just faster and stronger in her everyday life. They had feared it since she was a child, but the incident with Regan definitely pushed that concern into genuine fear. 

She knew it wasn’t any kind of conspiracy, that the tribe was doing something to prevent her from shifting. She knew much better than that, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she was scared too. Too scared of finally shifting, of finally getting what she’d always wanted, but losing control of it and ruining everything good in her life _again_. 

Toni looked back over at Shelby, who was no longer looking at her, starting out into the ocean in deep thought. 

After Toni’s outburst the old Shelby would’ve said something about ‘God always having a plan,’ or God never making mistakes, but she wasn’t sure that was true anymore; she didn’t want to think that God’s plan for her was to suffer at the hands of Dave Goodkind, stuck in his shadow for her whole life. She wanted to believe that any god would want better for her than that. 

Deciding not to linger on those thoughts any further, Shelby spoke up once again. 

“I’m sorry for pressing.”

They continued to just sit there in silence for so long that Shelby lost track. 

Since becoming a vampire, time has felt so different, especially since she knows she’ll never run out of it. She always felt like the Lord was trying to teach her patience in her old life, and now it seemed like she had it in spades. 

She always told herself to wait, just _wait_ until the next thing. Wait until college so she could finally be out of her parents’ house, wait until she graduated college to move out of Texas, wait until she had a stable job before she would allow herself to even _think_ about just being herself. She had accepted that her life would always be a waiting game, one that she knew she would eventually lose, seeing as she’d eventually just run out of time. 

But not anymore. 

Shelby was snapped out of her own head when Toni nudged her leg from the other end of the log. 

“Don’t react, but there’s someone on the shoreline, 2 o’clock,” Toni whispered as quietly as she could, knowing Shelby would hear her crystal clear. 

Shelby moved her eyes over to where Toni had said, and, sure enough, Becca Gilroy was on the beach. 

The stillness that came with vampirism was a huge benefit in this moment, as it allowed Shelby to stay as still as a statue while internally panicking. 

Toni’s whispers and Shelby’s best statue impression were for naught, though, as Becca looked over and noticed them, and there was no way she’d ever forget Shelby’s face. 

Something shifted on Becca’s face, then, before she came sauntering over slowly towards them. Shelby’s instincts told her the best exit strategy, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. 

The last things she said to Becca weren’t pretty, and she couldn’t stop the loop in her head of her own voice telling Becca that it was all her own fault, that she was asking for it. 

“Shelby Goodkind? Damn, I never thought I’d have to see you ever again,” Becca said as she finally made her way to stand in front of the driftwood, “I thought my disappearance would’ve brought you peace, so you could sit in your closet for another ten years; waste away that pretty face of yours.” 

Shelby might’ve just taken that, before, because she knew that she deserved it for all the horrible things she said, but now it was different. This wasn’t her Becca, this was someone else, someone out to ruin not only her new life, but the lives of so many vampires all across the world. She wasn’t just going to let this go. 

Shelby stood, towering over Becca, and stared down at her. Her jaw was clenched, and though she could barely shake the escape plan from her vision, she stared directly into Becca’s blood red eyes and sneered. 

Toni, still sitting on the log, didn’t seem to know what to do. She didn’t know if she should intervene, or if she should just let them fight it out, seeing as they clearly had unfinished business. 

Toni’s decision was made for her when Becca jumped onto Shelby and tackled her to the ground. 

The scene quickly devolved into chaos, with Becca and Shelby rolling around in the sand just clobbering each other, neither really taking a lead on the other. 

Suddenly, Becca managed to pull Shelby’s left arm clean off and started to beat her with it. 

At that, Toni absolutely saw red. She couldn’t put words to the amount of anger that consumed her body in that moment, but all she knew was that after Becca tore Shelby’s arm off, her body began to physically _ache_ in anger. 

Or, at least, she thought it was just anger. 

It wasn’t until she heard herself growl that she realized she’d finally shifted, looking down at huge dark paws meeting the earth where her legs used to, but by that time, all she knew was that she had to save Shelby, no matter what. 

She charged towards the two girls, Becca pinning Shelby to the ground and continuing to hit her with her own severed arm, cracks forming all over Shelby’s perfect face. Toni lunged and knocked Becca off of the other girl, and then she grabbed her by one of her own stone arms, and started to shake her head violently. 

She was incredibly clumsy, but she was making it work. 

Stumbling around with Becca still in her maw, she got a running start and chucked the vampire into the ocean. 

Toni knew that her little swim wouldn’t distract Becca for long, and that they had to leave if they were going to actually make it out of there in one piece. So, she ran over to Shelby, picked up her severed arm into her mouth, and gestured for her to jump onto her back. 

Shelby hesitated for only a moment before climbing on and holding on tight. 

The ride was definitely _not_ smooth in the slightest, but as they came bounding up to Martha’s house on the reservation, Toni felt like she could finally breathe again. 

Toni skid to a stop and let out a strange noise between a howl and a bark to try to get someone to come out and help Shelby, especially since she didn’t even know how to stop being a wolf at this point. 

Fatin, Leah, and Seth all came running out of the house, shocked at what they saw. 

Shelby’s slobbery arm was on the ground and Shelby herself was laid on the back of a wolf they didn’t recognize. 

“Shelby! Jesus fucking Christ, what happened?” Fatin yelled while running over and picking the vampire up, while Leah came over and grabbed the detached arm. 

“We had a run-in with Becca,” Shelby got out as Fatin took her into the Blackburn home and laid her down on the couch. 

“Shelb, you’re going to be fine, we just have to reattach your arm and it’ll work like new, okay?” Fatin reassured her, “Leah, honey, can you hold her still while I put her arm back?” 

-

Meanwhile, outside, Seth was doing everything he could to get Toni to calm down, it was the only way she’d be able to shift back. 

‘Toni, you need to relax. You saved Shelby, you got the two of you away from the danger, and the threat is gone now,’ Seth spoke through the pack’s mental link, which Toni was now a part of. 

If Toni weren’t so preoccupied with changing back, she’d be excited about finally being allowed into what was basically the most exclusive group chat, but that was the last thing on her mind now. 

Her mind just kept replaying the scene over and over again. Shelby and Becca on the ground, Becca on top of Shelby, Shelby’s arm ripped off, Shelby’s face covered in cracks. 

‘Toni, you have to listen to me,’ Seth projected, ‘Please, we need to know what happened, and if you shift, you can go check up on Shelby. You just need to relax.’ 

At that, Toni forced her shoulders to relax, forced herself to take deep breaths and try to picture things that made her calm. She saw Martha, she saw Martha’s mom, she saw La Push, and she saw Shelby. She was taken aback by how quickly Shelby had climbed up on that list, and she would definitely have to ask Seth about this connection she had to her ASAP. 

But first, Toni could feel her bones popping and cracking, could feel her face reshaping, and could feel her entire body screaming in agony. Her first shift had been so driven by white hot anger that she didn’t even notice how painful it was, but this was absolutely excruciating. 

When it was finally over, she collapsed on the ground. As she lay, face down in the dirt, Seth grabbed her by the belt loop of her jean shorts and yanked her up into a standing position. 

In a rare serious moment for Seth, he grabbed Toni by the shoulders and simply said, “I’m so proud of you,” and pulled her into a tight hug, and if a tear slipped out of Toni’s eye, he didn’t say a word. 

-

Fatin is a damn liar. 

Shelby’s arm felt awkward where it was reconnected, simply shoved back into place while the venom in her veins acted like superglue and aided in the reattachment. She moved her shoulder in circles, but couldn’t shake the feeling that her arm was just going to fall right off and land on the floor again. 

“We haven’t had to reattach anyone’s body parts in a long time,” Leah said with a laugh, “I forgot how incredible it is to watch.” 

“It is pretty incredible,” Fatin said as she moved to sit next to Shelby on the couch, “But what’s more incredible, is that Toni finally shifted. Care to tell me what the hell went down out there?”

“Well,” Shelby drawled, “We were just sitting on the beach, on the lookout, when Toni saw Becca. She approached us, we exchanged some words, and then she attacked me. I had it all under control until she ripped my arm out and started beating me with it.” 

Fatin and Leah were clearly holding back a laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation, but continued listening. 

Shelby gave them a look, “Anyway, then Toni was just a wolf out of nowhere and tackled Becca to the ground. She eventually tossed her into the ocean before having me climb on her back and give me a ride here.” 

“That’s crazy,” Fatin said, “Nothing could make that girl shift. Jacob tried and tried for months to make her mad enough to turn but she never did. I think he was about to just give up on her altogether, honestly.” 

“I don’t know why that situation with Becca would’ve pushed her to the edge, I don’t think we would’ve killed each other, and clearly, my arm is reattach-able,” Shelby wondered. 

“Well, maybe you guys are soulmates?” Fatin posed, “I mean, you clearly couldn’t stop thinking about Toni since the moment you saw her in the woods, and the fact that you didn’t eat her alive at school the other day makes me think that you guys have that connection. And, I know sexual tension when I see it.” 

“Soulmates? Isn’t that just a cliche made up to give people false hope?” Shelby rolled her eyes. 

“In humans, yeah it kinda is, but in vampires and especially in werewolves, it’s very real,” Leah explained, “For vampires, they’re more rare; not every vampire gets a soulmate, but that connection feels like a magnetic pull, even from across the earth. Hell, Fatin, Dot, and I are proof of the existence of soulmates.” 

Shelby was a little surprised by the actual confirmation of their unusual relationship, but she couldn’t help but smile at the way Leah was looking at Fatin as she explained their bond. She looked at Fatin like she hung the stars in the sky, and seeing them together, and along with Dot in their home, made her think that maybe they were right. 

That soulmates were real, that maybe she wouldn’t have to end up alone.

“As for werewolves,” Leah continued, “Every werewolf has a soulmate, and they do this thing called ‘imprinting.’ It sounds really weird but it basically just means that the moment they lock eyes, the shifter will basically be tied to the imprintee’s soul forever, almost like love at first sight.” 

“Well, Toni and I locked eyes over a week ago, and she still acts like she can’t stand me sometimes, so I think your soulmate theory is shot, Leah,” Shelby sighed. 

At that moment, the door to Martha’s home opened and Seth walked in, with Toni trailing behind him. The minute Toni locked eyes with Shelby, everyone in the room could feel the shift, almost like the last piece of the puzzle clicked into place, and Toni dropped to her knees.


	6. all of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for that cliffhanger last time, i couldn't resist. here's the aftermath of the imprint, as well as a date under the stars. 
> 
> chapter title is from a thousand years by christian perri from the breaking dawn part 1 soundtrack

As Toni and Shelby just stared at each other, Fatin, Leah, and Seth all excused themselves, knowing that they needed a moment to talk about this, as well as to let Jacob and Dot know about the incident at La Push. 

Fatin awkwardly stepped around Toni, who was still on her knees in the doorway, and gave Shelby a peace sign as she closed the door behind her. 

The sound of the door closing seemed to startle Toni out of her trance, and she scrambled to her feet. She stood around awkwardly before Shelby gestured for her to sit on the couch next to her. 

They sat in silence for a moment, but this time it was comfortable, the opposite of their time on the driftwood at the beach. That felt like so long ago now, like they were different people than they were then, even though it was only a few hours ago. 

“I… I don’t know how much you know about werewolves, or about our culture, or imprinting, but I want to be 100% transparent and honest with you,” Toni started, “I just imprinted on you, which means that you’re it for me. You’re my soulmate, but it’s not a binding contract. I want you to know that you have full autonomy in this, and that you can walk away right now and I won’t bother you again.” 

Toni cleared her throat, “I just don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice, because you do. It’s so important to me that you do.”

Shelby took a minute to consider what Toni was saying. She was willing to spend her whole life longing for Shelby, knowing full well that she will never love again, just so she could give her a choice. She put Shelby’s feelings before her own, and she was willing to suffer for the rest of her life because of it.

If anything, that just made her more certain in what she was about to say. 

“Toni, Fatin told me everything about imprinting and soulmates, and, if I’m being honest, I think you’re mine, and I think I’ve known it since the first day we met. Gosh, I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” if Shelby could blush, she would’ve as she looked down at her hands, “My father, he insisted I’d be alone. He found out that I’m… different, and told me that if I stayed on that path, that no one would love me, and I’d die lonely.” 

Shelby looked at Toni, “I don’t know how much I believe in God anymore, but I think it’s kind of beautiful that he brought me you, to insure that I’d never be alone again. I’m not saying yes to an engagement or anything just yet, but I’d love to try, Toni. I want to go on dates and get to know everything about you, and embrace this connection we share, if you’re willing.” 

Toni looked into Shelby’s golden eyes through her own glassy ones, “Of course, Shelby. We’ll take it at any pace you want; if you’re comfortable, I’m comfortable… and I’d love to take you on a date sometime.” 

Toni reached over then and grabbed the vampire’s hand, holding her freezing cold one between her two warm ones. In that moment, Shelby knew she would do anything to keep this girl, u-haul stereotype be damned. 

-

With an extremely serious threat lurking on the horizon for both Shelby and Toni, the two of them decided not to drag their feet on scheduling that first date. 

In fact, they decided they would just do it right after the meeting with Dot and Jacob that was called after the two leaders were informed of the incident at La Push. The meeting itself wasn’t very interesting, just going over with everyone exactly what happened, and what the proper course of action was now. 

“Now that there’s been a physical altercation, I’m sure Gretchen knows that we’re onto her, but I have a feeling that she might lay low for a few days, try to regroup. I really don’t think anything else will happen this weekend, so I suggest we all split up and get some rest,” Jacob instructed, “We can return to our stations on Monday.” 

With that, the group split in two as everyone started to make their way back to their respective homes and territories. All except Toni and Shelby, who stood awkwardly on either side of the boundary line, waiting for the others to clear out. As she was leaving, Dot gave her a smile and a small thumbs-up, no doubt filled in by Fatin and Leah about exactly what happened back on the res. 

“So, nothing really brings people together like a nearly apocalyptic vampire takedown, huh?” Toni shyly joked as she slowly moved closer to where Shelby was standing. 

“Yeah, I guess so, huh?” Shelby was equally as shy, “What, um, what do you want to do?” 

One would think that knowing the person standing in front of you is your soulmate would squash any first date jitters or nervous attitudes, but Shelby couldn’t quite shake the quiver in her voice. After all, this was going to be her first date with a girl, something she thought she’d never allow herself to have. 

“I have a really beat up truck and I know a really cool spot up on the bluffs, if you’re not too traumatized to look at the beach?” Toni finally reached her and gently grabbed her hand, lacing her fingers through the other girl’s. 

“That sounds great, actually. It was so beautiful, it would be a damn shame if I let the whole place be ruined by my evil ex… friend. Evil ex friend.” 

Toni considered her for a moment, and then led Shelby by their tied hands to where an old red pickup was parked on the road that led to the coven’s home. When they got to the truck, Toni dropped the vampire’s cold hand and opened the door for her. 

Shelby ducked her head and smiled; she was finally getting what her dad made her believe was wrong: to simply be taken out by a pretty girl and treated like she was special. 

-

The drive to the beach was quiet, but comfortable. Toni’s truck was so old that it only took casette’s, and the mixtape that Toni made was filling the silence. Turns out, Toni was a sucker for early Paramore. 

When they finally made it up to the bluff overlooking La Push, Toni parked her truck backwards, so that the bed was facing the edge, and she gestured for Shelby to climb in with her. 

Toni had a few pillows in her backseat that she laid out in the bed, and threw down a huge blanket, and the two girls settled next to each other, staring up at the stars. 

“I don’t know if this is a faux pas, but I was wondering what your human life was like? You know, what you did before you became a vampire?” Toni broke the silence, looking at Shelby with curious eyes. 

Is the first date too soon to drop all your emotional baggage onto your soulmate? Shelby decided it was, “I actually used to do pageants.” 

Toni faked a gasp, “You? A pageant princess? Color me shocked. But seriously, there has to be more to you than that, I know you’re more than just a pretty face.” 

Shelby rolled her head over to face Toni and said with a teasing lilt, “You think I’m pretty?” 

“Shelby, you’re killing me!” Toni groaned dramatically, “I’m trying to get to know you, here.” 

Shelby took a deep breath and finally relented, “Fine, but remember, you asked for this,” she warned before continuing, “Back home in Texas, I was the preacher’s daughter, perfect pageant queen, but there was always so much ugly that my father tried to keep hidden.” 

Shelby looked back up at the sky and played with the hem of her jean jacket, “Before all this, I actually was missing two of my front teeth,” she let out a humorless laugh, “Can you believe it? My Daddy always bragged about my perfect pageant smile, but the whole time, it was totally fake. So much about me was fake, and I’m still trying to unlearn it all. Being a whole different thing definitely helps, though.” 

“Damn, that’s rough,” Toni replied, “I have to know, when did you know you were gay? It clearly wasn’t a surprise to you that I turned out to be your soulmate, so you were expecting a girl, if anyone at all.” 

Shelby wanted to shut down, to be angry at Toni for even bringing it up. They were out on this date, wasn’t that enough for her without having to actually talk about her being _like that_? 

But, she knew that tonight, she could go home to the coven’s house in the woods, with the big windows and the warm interior, full of so many different types of love that it radiated through the walls. She wouldn’t have to see the disgust in her father’s eyes as Toni dropped her off, she would instead be greeted by Fatin, who would absolutely want to know _everything_ that happened tonight. She finally let herself shake the weight of her self hatred off her shoulders, and looked into Toni's kind eyes. 

So, she opened up, “I… I first realized that I was gay when I saw Hannah Montana as a kid,” she heard Toni’s quiet laugh next to her, and it spurred her on further, “I couldn’t get over how much I wanted to hold her hand.” 

“Hey, as far as gay awakenings go, that’s a pretty good one. Mine was Sharpey from High School Musical.” 

Shelby smiled at that, “That’s a good one, too… The first time that I ever actually had feelings for a girl was when I couldn’t stop thinking about my best friend Becca.” 

“Becca… you mean that crazy bitch from the beach?” 

“Yeah, that’s her. She wasn’t like that when I knew her, though. She was kind, and gentle. We kissed, actually, before she went missing. My dad caught us in my room, and he threatened to send me away if I didn’t get over that ‘lifestyle.’ I was turned before he ever had the chance, thank God.” 

She felt Toni’s warm hand grasp her own, and when she looked into those brown eyes, all she saw was love and warmth and acceptance. 

“Thank you for telling me that, Shelby. I know that must’ve been so hard for you,” Toni spoke softly. 

Shelby took a quick breath, “Well, enough about me, I want to know about you, too. This can’t be just a one-sided thing tonight.” 

Now it was Toni’s turn to clam up, but she pushed through her fear because of how open Shelby was just able to be, and she wanted to give her that right back. 

“You probably already know about my shifting woes from the others, so I’ll spare you that drama, but my life wasn’t exactly easy before that. Dad was a no-show, mom was always in and out of rehab until eventually her heart just gave out, and I was left with no one. I’d lived on the Res through it all, and when my mom died, Martha’s mom took me in. She’s the kindest woman I’ve ever known, but it’s not the same, you know?”

Shelby nodded, wanting Toni to know that she was right there with her. 

“Anyway, I love living with Martha, and her mom always made me feel right at home, but I just wanted my own family, one that didn’t take me in out of pity, one that loved me. Every single day since I learned of our tribe’s powers, I dreamt of joining the pack and finally having that family. Then, life fucked me over again by keeping me from that family for longer than anyone our tribe had ever seen.” 

“But you’re in now, and that has to be a great feeling, I imagine?” Shelby wondered, rubbing her cold thumb along the back of Toni’s hand. 

Toni finally cracked a smile, “Yeah, yeah it is. I just wished it would’ve been easy, you know? Everything about my life has been _so hard_ , and I’m _so tired_ , and I just wanted one thing to fall into place.” 

“I don’t want to sound cheesy here, but I think we’re a pretty seamless fit, huh?” Shelby was teasing her again. 

Toni, with an incredibly serious look on her face, stared right into Shelby’s golden eyes and replied, “Yeah, I think we are.” 

And in that moment, under the moonlight and the brilliant stars, with the sound of the waves gently lapping the beach below, Shelby wanted nothing more than to kiss Toni. 

So, she did. She leaned in and let her lips softly brush against Toni’s, making sure she was fully on board before she continued. When she felt the other girl’s warm lips press firmly into her own, Shelby let herself go completely, utterly taken by her desire for the woman laying beside her. 

As they kissed, Shelby eagerly gripped the sides of Toni’s face until she heard a quiet ‘ouch!’

Shelby quickly pulled away to see a small drop of blood running from Toni’s lip, clearly where the vampire’s sharp fangs had gotten her while they were kissing. Shelby was embarrassed for a moment before Toni started laughing, and then the vampire did too. 

They laughed and held hands and basked in the joy of both of them finally knowing they would have a family for all time, something that had been but a pipe dream before was now made a reality. 

They made out under the stars until they felt droplets of rain begin to fall on them, and Shelby used her super speed to rush everything into the backseat of the truck before the pillows and blanket were absolutely soaked. They laughed as they both slammed the truck doors shut, and Toni started up the old engine, and began the short trip back to Shelby’s home. 

-

The minute Shelby walked in the door, she was met with the entire coven sitting in the living room and looking at her expectantly. 

“Sooooo, what was that all about? Fraternizing with the enemy, are we?” Fatin teased from her spot between Dot and Leah on the couch. 

“The _enemies_ have sure been helping us out a lot lately for a group of people that are supposed to hate us,” Shelby teased back, trying to move slowly towards the stairs, but of course five vampires with enhanced vision were going to notice even the tiniest of movements Shelby made. 

“No way, kid, come over here,” Fatin said, “You need to tell us everything and you need to tell us now.” 

Shelby told her coven the abridged version of her date with Toni, and about how she makes her feel. 

“Honestly, this whole soulmate thing is like, super nice,” Shelby finished with a embarrassed laugh. 

“Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say how happy I am for you, Shelby,” Leah spoke up, giving Shelby the softest look she’d ever given her, trying to convey to her that she understood the true importance of this soulmate bond. 

Rachel, who had been sitting on the couch opposite Dot, Leah, and Fatin, and next to Nora, stood up to go back to her room, but not before putting a hand on Shelby’s shoulder and saying, “I’m really happy for you, too. Also, if Toni does anything to hurt you, I’m going to rip her apart,” with that she walked upstairs and closed her door. 

Shelby, shocked by that interaction, looked around at the other girls, until she made eye contact with Nora, who simply smiled at her, and Shelby finally felt like she was really a member of this family. 

Later, when she was alone in her room, thinking back on her day, she laughed to herself. 

Having a family composed entirely of women, most of whom were queer, and finding a literal soulmate in a firey werewolf who was also a woman, really was the biggest ‘fuck you’ to Dave Goodkind that Shelby could’ve ever dreamed of. 

That moment was one of the only times she would probably ever think this again, but she wanted to see him, if only to tell him that she wasn’t alone, and that she was happier than she’d ever been in her whole life, and it was only just beginning.


	7. superstars sucked into the supermassive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is honestly one of my favorite chapters! if you know when the song i named this chapter after plays in the twilight movies, you Know what's coming. also, it's the beginning of the end starting here. 
> 
> chapter title from supermassive black hole by muse from the twilight soundtrack

The storm from the night before continued into the morning, and, to Shelby’s surprise, the mood in the home was the lightest she’d ever seen it. It was like everyone woke up on the right side of the bed, which was weird, since no one even _woke up_ today. 

“Okay, I’ll bite, why is everyone walkin’ on sunshine today?” Shelby finally asked Dot when they were in the kitchen together, watching the rain roll down their floor to ceiling windows. 

“It’s storming,” Dot said simply, with a huge smile. 

Shelby blinked, “I can see that, but why is everyone in such a good mood because of a silly storm? I’m sure you’ve lived to see a million storms at this point.” 

“Yeah, but it’s not actually about the storm, it’s about what we get to do because of the storm,” Dot explained. 

Before she could continue, Rachel walked into the kitchen dressed in a full baseball uniform, and swung a wooden bat over her shoulder, “You guys ready? Because I am definitely ready to kick some ass today.” 

Shelby breathed out a laugh, “No way, vampire baseball?”

“Oh yeah,” Dot confirmed, “And we take it super seriously, too, but it’s really just a whole lot of fun. Fatin should have an extra uniform you can wear.” 

Shelby was still taken aback by _vampire baseball_ , but decided to head upstairs to see if Fatin did actually have an outfit Shelby could wear. 

-

“So you do this every single time it storms? Why does it have to be storming?” Shelby pressed Fatin, as she rummaged through her gigantic closet to find her a baseball look. 

“Yeah, it’s a really fun way to blow off some steam, especially because we don’t have to hold back against each other,” Fatin explained while venturing deeper into her massive closet, “Here, try this on,” she handed Shelby a cropped hoodie, striped baseball pants, a pair of baseball socks, and some cleats. 

Shelby switched places with Fatin and changed quickly in the closet, and came out looking the absolute part. 

Fatin’s eyes lit up, “You look _awesome_ , you’re definitely going to be on my team; we always win.” 

-

They arrived at the field in two cars, and just as they parked, a huge clap of thunder rang out. At this point, the rain had pretty well stopped, but the thunder continued, seeming louder than ever. 

They split into two teams: Fatin as team captain with Shelby and Rachel, and Dot as the other team captain with Nora and Leah. There clearly weren’t enough of them to play any kind of real game of baseball, but, as Nora lined up on the pitcher's mound, and Dot and Leah spread out in the outfield, Shelby thought that this wouldn’t even work at all. 

Fatin was up to bat first, and due to the lack of players, Rachel had to act as catcher while she waited for her turn. Nora threw an insane curveball that moved almost faster than Shelby could see, and when Fatin hit the ball, she finally understood why they needed the storm. 

The ear shattering crack the bat made rang through the field and sounded just like a clap of thunder. 

Shelby leaned over to Rachel, “Now I see why you need the thunder.” 

Rachel could only laugh at her awed look in return. 

The ball went soaring into the woods, and Fatin made a mad dash around the bases, which were at least 3x as spread apart as a normal baseball field. The speed was off the charts as Leah chased after the ball and jumped five feet into the air to catch it, before throwing it back to Nora to try to get Fatin out. 

Fatin was just a little too quick, though, and scored a home run for their team. 

Shelby and Rachel were laughing and celebrating with Fatin, and then it was Shelby’s turn at bat. 

She stepped up to the plate and got ready, quietly enjoying the experience that pageants and her father’s watchful eye prevented her from ever having. 

Nora wound up for the pitch, throwing her leg out and then firing the baseball right at Shelby, and when she swung at it, she almost thought she missed. 

But the audible crack was unmistakable, and then Shelby was off. 

She ran as fast as she could, and it felt like the world was in slow motion when she felt Dot come running up behind her. She pushed even harder, running until she slid into home base, scoring another home run. 

“Holy shit, newbie! I’m always picking you for my team,” Rachel laughed in disbelief. 

That was when Shelby noticed that she slid so hard that her foot was buried in the ground. The utter speed and power she put into that slide created a little gutter in the still wet ground, and she couldn’t help but laugh too. 

The girls in the outfield came running in, Dot quickly helping Shelby up, and, at first, she thought she was mad about ruining their field, “Dottie, I’m sorry about the base, I’ll fix it.”

But Dot was clearly more preoccupied. Coming out from the edge of the woods, was a small group of vampires, and they didn’t look friendly. 

Shelby tensed immediately when she saw not only Becca, but also the man that attacked her among the bunch, and seeing their menacing red eyes sent a chill up Shelby’s frozen spine. 

“Don’t stop on our account!” Shelby’s attacker, Dr. Faber, she remembered, called out towards them, “We thought you might’ve wanted some more players!” 

Dot stepped forward, “We were actually just leaving, sorry! It looks like the storm is rolling out, and you know we can’t possibly play on a sunny day.” 

As they continued to get closer and closer, Shelby was able to get a closer look at some of their other members, and tried to pinpoint if any of them were the woman herself, Gretchen. 

She noticed a short, Asian woman with a severe bob, but that was the only other person with Becca and Daniel, and she knew that wasn’t Gretchen, since Dot had mentioned she was a tall brunette. If they were only here with half of their squad, where was the other half? 

“That’s such a shame, you know, I was really looking forward to playing. Might’ve helped me and Shelby reconnect like the old friends we are,” Becca bit out as they stopped in front of the coven. 

“I don’t know what you’re playing at here, but I suggest you get lost,” Rachel spoke up, “If you hadn’t noticed, you’re outnumbered.” 

“Oh, I don’t know, I think we have more of a leg up than you realize,” the Asian woman spoke, “Isn’t that right?”

She directed her question towards the back of the coven, and Shelby was confused before Nora directed a huge punch right at Leah, knocking her to the ground. 

Shelby couldn’t believe her eyes. Nora had just turned on them completely out of the blue, and she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t make sense of it either. 

Rachel’s jaw was on the floor as she just stared at Nora with the most pain Shelby had ever seen grace the normally stone cold vamp’s face. 

Gretchen’s posse took the coven’s moment of shock as the perfect opportunity to attack, jumping on the girls and holding nothing back. 

Shelby was currently under Becca, again, but this time, Shelby knew her arm was going to stay put. In her mind’s eye, she could see that the perfect escape was to distract them with a major scene, so she did just that. 

Returning the favor, she ripped off Becca’s leg at the knee, and chucked it as far as she could possibly throw it. That left Becca incapacitated, and angrily hopping in the direction of her lost leg, so Shelby was able to make quick work of doing the same to Daniel, who was currently attacking Leah. 

She ripped his leg clean off too and threw it in an entirely different direction. After seeing that, Nora seemed to get the memo that this was a losing battle and called, “Linh, let’s go!” 

Shelby watched as Nora and ‘Linh’ ran after Becca and Daniel, and then disappeared into the woods. 

After they were gone, each member of the coven just laid where they were in silence, unable to process the fact that a member of their _family_ was actually a traitor. 

-

Storms always brought calm to Toni’s mind. She felt that they were a byproduct of the world cleansing and realigning itself, and, when it stormed, she tried to force herself to do the same. 

As she lay on the mattress on the floor next to Martha’s bed, she listened as the rain pattered down onto the roof and tapped at the windows, and tried to let herself relax. Soon, a huge clap of thunder rang out, startling Martha from her sleep.

“...Toni?” Martha called into the room. She’d always been scared of storms, ever since they were little, and whenever it did storm heavily, Martha always asked Toni to climb up into her bed with her. 

Toni, getting the memo, climbed up into Martha’s bed, “I’m right here, Marty, it’s okay.” 

They laid there for a bit, just enjoying the others’ embrace and waiting for the storm to pass by. 

Martha eventually broke the silence, “So, you never actually told me what happened last night,” she breached the subject carefully, “All I know is that you were out late with someone, and Seth was making jokes about imprinting.” 

A blush crawled up Toni’s tan cheeks at the mention of the wonderful and crazy day that was yesterday. From shifting, to imprinting, to making out with her soulmate in the back of her truck, it was madness in Toni’s mind. Nothing had ever gone so right all at once. 

Martha obviously knew about the shifting; it had been the first thing Toni said to her when she got back from watching the school with Nora last night. Martha was so happy for Toni that they both cried happy tears, before having to collect themselves and go to Jacob and Dot’s meeting. 

Martha had seen just how much Toni suffered in this life, and something finally going her way just this once made her heart swell with love for her best friend in the whole world. 

“Seth can joke all he wants, but imprinting is no joke, Marty,” Toni finally said, and Martha gasped. 

She sat up in her bed and looked at Toni, “You found your soulmate and you didn’t even tell me?!” 

Toni sat up as well and grabbed Martha’s hand, “I didn’t really have a lot of time last night to tell you! I was a little preoccupied,” Toni laughed. 

Martha broke out in a laugh as well, “Well, now you’re going to make up for it by telling me everything that happened, and don’t leave out a single detail.” 

“Okay, so you know Shelby, right? The new vampire in Dot’s clan?” Martha nodded, “She’s my soulmate, and we went on this wonderful date last night, and we kissed on the Bluffs, and she held my hand, and I kissed her when I dropped her off,” Toni rambled. 

Martha had never seen Toni like this, all flustered and rambling, and just plain smitten. 

Toni had gotten her heart broken before, by a girl from the reservation school named Regan, and after their nasty breakup, Toni lashed out. She blew up, smashing the windows of Regan’s car and storming off into the woods. She was gone for days before Jacob found her. 

After that, Regan’s family moved off the res and headed to Port Angeles, far away from Toni and the chaos that they saw her cause. Regan’s family weren’t shifters, so it was easy for them to just cut ties and move away, but they left a huge hole in Toni’s heart, and in the community on the res. 

“Toni, I’m so happy for you,” Martha said as she squeezed her hand, “Remember, you’ve got this one for life, so don’t mess this up,” her tone was warning but gentle, only speaking from the love she held for Toni and the happiness she longed for her to find. 

-

When the rain finally let up, Martha and Toni decided to head outside and see what the rest of the pack were up to. As soon as they walked out the door, they heard the familiar buzz of the dirt bike engines revving up from the field, and they saw Seth and Leah zipping back and forth. 

Dirt biking is something the entire pack enjoys, and working on the bikes out in the shed has helped them to bond over the years, even before they were in each other’s heads constantly. 

The girls ran over to the shed to grab their own bikes, hopped on, and zipped off into the field as well, playfully racing and doing wheelies on the muddy ground. 

The roar of four dirtbikes was so loud that they almost didn’t notice three figures walking out of the woods and approaching the homes on the res, but Jacob, who had been ‘supervising’ the biking, was quick to catch them. 

‘Don’t panic, but we’ve got company,’ Jacob announced through their mind link, ‘I don’t see anyone who looks like Gretchen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is her posse.’ 

The four dirt bikers cut through the mud at top speed and skidded to a stop outside of the shed, heading to stand behind Jacob on foot. 

“Vampires aren’t allowed on this land, but I’m going to assume you already know that,” Jacob called out as the intruders approached. 

There was an Asian woman with long hair flanked by two tall and skinny white men. One of the men looked less sure of the other two, but followed along nonetheless, as they came to a stop in front of Jacob. 

Jacob is an extremely tall man, and he towered over them at his 6’2” stature. 

The vampires didn’t seem frightened, though, which Toni assumes boils down to them believing that vampires are stronger than werewolves, and they could easily take down the entire pack very easily. 

While vampires did have speed on their side, they underestimated the brute force werewolves have, and Toni hoped that would give them a leg up if this turned into an all out brawl. 

“But, we’ve seen vampires here before? Just last night, actually! Could it be that you’re betraying your own kind? Turning your back on years of tradition?” The woman spoke, her red eyes landing on Toni as she finished speaking. 

“What we do isn’t your business,” Jacob asserted, trying to stay quick to the point, “What is your business here?” 

“We just came to scout the place; seems like it would make a nice HQ when you’re all dead,” One of the men spoke, his aggression bleeding through his words. 

Apparently, he had said too much, because the woman hit him over the back of the head, before sighing and lunging towards the pack. 

The scene devolved into absolute chaos as everyone shifted into their wolf form in order to respond to the attacks, but Toni couldn’t figure out how to shift. 

When she’d done it yesterday, she was just so overwhelmed with her need to protect Shelby and the all consuming anger Becca’s attack had caused that it just came naturally, but now she couldn’t figure it out. 

The woman seemed to notice Toni struggling, and lunged straight for her. In that instant, Toni’s body seemed to remember, and she shifted into a massive dark brown wolf. That didn’t stop the vampire from pummeling her, and Toni just couldn’t get the upper hand like she had over Becca, still clumsy in the oversized body she currently inhabited. 

The vampire must’ve recognized this, because she smirked before swatting Toni so hard that she crashed into the shed. She left a massive hole in the wood paneling as she laid on the floor, her front leg bent in an odd direction. Her body shifted itself back, and Toni writhed on the floor, her attacker then stepping through the hole in the shed to brutalize her further. 

She let out a loud cry, alerting Seth and Martha, who were busy fending off the less enthusiastic of the two men, and Seth finally snatched him up in his mouth and tossed him as far as he could. They then ran over to Toni and knocked the woman off of her wounded body. 

Martha shifted back and picked Toni up, cradling her in her arms and running her back into her mother’s house while Leah joined Seth in getting rid of the vampire. 

Jacob made quick work of the other man, tearing his arm off, but the vampire snatched it up off the ground and sprinted into the woods, headed off the reservation. 

Seth and Leah ripped the woman apart, tearing her stone limbs off and scattering them around, leaving her looking like a scattered mannequin in the field. Seth shifted back and started a fire, tossing each piece of the vampire in before she could attempt to reassemble herself. 

“Well, one down, at least,” Seth said as Leah approached him, the two of them covered in bruises and scratches. 

All of those wounds would heal by sundown, though. Toni’s on the other hand, would be a painful overnight process, one which Martha was already hurting over, as seeing Toni suffer always brought that pain onto her as well. 

When Jacob returned, he immediately entered the Blackburn house, where Martha and her mom were looking after Toni. Her arm was broken at the elbow, misshapen and swollen. 

“How you doing, kiddo?” Jacob asked Toni as he stood next to Martha’s bed. 

Toni cracked one eye open, “I think I’ll live,” then she let out a short laugh.

“You did good today. I’m so proud of you,” Jacob comforted her before leaving Toni to rest. 

As Jacob walked out the door, a black Jeep pulled up to the res, and he recognized it as one of the coven’s cars, “Hey, I was just about to give you guys a call, something happened here.” 

As the vampires got out of the car, their faces showed their pain, but Dot put on her bravest face and walked up to Jacob, “Yeah, we had an incident, too. Let me guess, Gretchen’s goons showed up and attacked?” 

“Yeah. We managed to burn one, but the other two got away,” Jacob explained, “Toni was hurt pretty badly, but she’ll be fine come morning.” 

At the mention of Toni’s injury, Shelby perked up, “Wait, where is she?” 

“In the Blackburn house, resting,” Jacob nodded towards Martha’s house, “I’m sure she’d love your company.” 

Shelby went to go check on Toni, and with her gone, Jacob noticed that there were only four vampires left, “Where’s Nora at? Did she stay back home to safeguard the house?” 

Rachel looked like she would be crying if her body would let her, and Leah grabbed her hand to comfort her before Dot explained, “Nora was… with them. The whole time. She turned on us as they attacked and fled with them.” 

Jacob let out a deep breath, “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now,” he rubbed the back of his head, “Why don’t you guys come in? We can all check up on Toni, and formulate a new game plan from there.” 

With that, the coven walked into the Blackburn house, where Martha’s mom greeted them kindly and let them all sit in the living room, where they would have to think of a plan to take down not only Gretchen and her gaggle of groupies, but also Nora, someone they had all known and loved for so long. 

It was going to be a long night.


	8. i woke with this fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's here, y'all: the big battleTM 
> 
> it's pretty graphic, but in the same way i talked about before. just wanted to warn y'all in case it's too much. 
> 
> title is from leave out all the rest by linkin park from the twilight soundtrack

Toni woke up laying on something very _very_ cold. 

She shifted around, but tweaked her arm in a way that caused her to groan. 

“Hey, you’re okay, you don’t need to move,” Shelby whispered. 

“S’cold,” Toni mumbled, her face pressing further into Shelby’s neck despite her complaint.

“I’m sorry, you’re literally a space heater and I’m an icicle, match made in Heaven,” Shelby pressed a kiss to the top of Toni’s head, “How are you feeling?” 

All night long, Shelby had sat next to Toni, watching as Toni’s expedited healing process took a toll on her soulmate’s body. Around one in the morning, Toni started to sweat and run a high fever and seemed almost comatose in her deep sleep, so Shelby decided to climb into the bed and pull Toni next to her, hoping that her permanently frigid body would help her get over her horrible fever. 

Her fever broke around four in the morning, and her arm looked to be back to normal, at least on the outside. 

It was around seven before Toni actually started to wake up. 

“I’m actually feeling much better. My arm is still a little sore, and feels kinda awkward to move, but it’s definitely healed up,” Toni said as she yawned and blinked herself awake, “Sorry I was fully on top of you all night, when did you even get into bed with me?” 

Shelby smiled at the mess that was Toni’s hair, and thought her slow process of waking up was absolutely adorable, “I crawled in when you spiked a high fever, figured you could use a walking ice pack to keep you cool.” 

At that Toni laughed, and ran her hands through her hair, suddenly realizing how messy it was, “Oh, God, I’m sure I look a mess,” she looked sheepish. 

“Hey,” Shelby gently cupped her cheek and ran her thumb over the few little scratches that were nearly healed up, “You’re beautiful.” 

Toni smiled and leaned in for a kiss when Fatin burst through the door, “I hate to break up your honeymoon, but we’ve got a problem.” 

-

“How many missing persons reports? Twelve? All filed this morning?” 

Dot nodded in confirmation, “And counting. This is _so_ bad.” 

“But what does this mean? What is Gretchen doing with all of these people?” Shelby asked, holding tight to Toni’s hand. 

“She’s building an army,” Rachel said, staring down at her hands, “I guess she’s said fuck it to any kind of secrecy or pattern and is just turning as many people as she can.”

“What I can’t put my finger on,” Fatin jumped in, “is why not do all of this in Voltera? If the end goal is to take over the Volturi, why not just go to Italy and start turning people like crazy?” 

“Unless her goal isn’t to go to them, but for them to come to her,” Leah realized, “She wants to make a big enough scene that the Volturi are forced to come to Forks so she can fight them here. Voltera is probably one of the most guarded cities in the world, I mean, think about how many vampires are there and how locked down the Volturi are against attack! She wants them out of their element and away from their security detail.” 

“Well,” Jacob spoke up, “We have to stop them before the Volturi arrives, then. It’s the best way to avoid any accidents.” 

“We need a distraction,” Toni spoke up, “We need something that will draw Gretchen out, not just her posse.” 

The group quieted for a moment, all considering what they were willing to use as bait, or more likely, _who_ they were willing to use as bait. 

“Rach, hear me out, but what if you were bait?” Leah nervously looks towards Rachel, a clear plan in mind.

Rachel raises an eyebrow, signaling her to continue, “...What if we sent you out to the baseball field, and you pretended to want to join Nora on Gretchen’s side?” 

Leah hesitated, and when no one protested, she continued, “Your power is something that Gretchen would absolutely want in her army, and I’m sure she would bring her entire crew with her to welcome you into it.” 

The group looked around at each other, each person considering the plan, but it all came down to Rachel. 

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Rachel’s voice was firm, “But on one condition: everyone else can die, but we spare Nora, at least for now.” 

Dot and Jacob nodded their heads in agreement, and, just like that, the plan was in motion. 

-

“Nora!” Rachel yelled into the forest around the baseball field, “Nora! I want to join you! I can’t be separated from you like this! I’m loyal to you before I’m loyal to Dot!” 

She stood around for a while, repeating herself a few times, just to make sure the message was fully out there, but she didn’t expect them to come as soon as they did. Not even ten minutes later Gretchen and her goons were walking onto the field towards Rachel, Nora pulling up the rear. 

Rachel faced Gretchen head on, knowing that in the tree line behind her was her coven, her _family_ , ready to protect her at a moment’s notice, and that the wolves were waiting too, just a bit further away so Gretchen wouldn’t hear their heartbeats and suspect anything. 

“My, my, Rachel Reid, I never thought I’d get a chance to invite you into my circle,” Gretchen spoke as she stopped a good five feet from Rachel, far enough away that Rachel couldn’t surprise her with an electric shock without lunging for her first. 

“Well, I never thought I’d ever be asking to join, but, like I said,” Rachel looked at Nora dead in the eyes, “I’m loyal to Nora before I’m loyal to Dot; I go where she goes.” 

Nora, at this, looked _horrified_ , which almost made Rachel stop short. 

It seemed like Nora was with Gretchen against her will, if the expression on her face was anything to go by, and it made Rachel want to rip Gretchen apart even more. She also noticed that Nora’s eyes weren’t red, meaning she hadn’t succumbed to their diet yet, so she still looked like _her_ Nora. 

Rachel looked back at Gretchen and saw a smug look on her face, it made Rachel’s skin crawl. 

“I’m pleased,” she smirked, “With you on my team, there’s no way my plan will fail.”

At this point, the plan was for Rachel to just distract Gretchen enough that her coven could spread out along the treeline so they could attack from all sides when they jumped them, so Rachel prompted Gretchen to do what villains love to do most: give long speeches about their evil schemes. 

“Before I fully join, I want to know what the plan is, exactly,” Rachel crossed her arms and stood her ground, “I want to know what I’m getting myself into.” 

Gretchen seemed delighted to be able to explain her plan again, and she launched into her extremely predictable plan, the plan that Leah had basically laid out back at the Blackburn house. 

Rachel hoped that everyone was about in position, because she didn’t know how much longer she could listen to this woman without grabbing her and electrocuting her. 

-

Gretchen was almost done with her elaborate story time when the group was attacked from all angles, and Rachel finally wrapped her hands around Gretchen’s throat and brought her to her knees with an intense electric shock. 

The vampires came out first, super speeding to the group and taking them down as quickly as they could, capitalizing on the element of surprise. 

The wolves came out of the trees, all shifted except for Toni, who was tasked with lighting the giant pile of scrap wood they’d set out before Rachel lured Gretchen there. 

The pyre would serve as the easiest way to quickly tear through her crew as they tore them up; at least if they couldn’t throw the whole vampire into the fire, they could incapacitate them by getting rid of a few limbs. 

Toni then put all her focus into shifting, and finally, was able to do it on command. She set off from the burning pyre and ran into the madness, quickly finding Shelby, and stationing herself at her back, keeping her protected and fending off the vampires. 

Gretchen and Rachel were fighting back and forth, Gretchen trying to keep her distance when she wasn’t actively punching and clawing at the other vampire to avoid being shocked. Rachel finally got a hand on Gretchen, but before she could shock her, Gretchen ripped her right hand from her body and tossed it into the fire. 

With only one hand left, Rachel saw red as she slammed Gretchen to the ground and started to beat the absolute shit out of her. 

While Rachel was trying to take Gretchen out for good, the wolves, Seth and Martha, were depositing the parts of ‘Thom,’ they learned his name was, and watching him catch fire before continuing to fight. 

They were each able to shift back and forth quickly and easily, which made for an interesting wolf tag team style of fighting that the vampires didn’t expect or know how to deal with. 

Leah and Fatin were taking on Jeanette, or Linh, which was her real name, since Leah could block both herself and Fatin from her mind powers. 

They fought back and forth until Fatin slammed Linh’s head into the ground, and it shattered from her body. The sick crack as the pieces of her neck scattered on the ground echoed through the field, and Leah gave Fatin a high five for her good work. 

Leah took her body and tossed it in the fire, and Fatin threw her head in as well. 

By nature, Fatin isn’t a fighter, it doesn’t bode well with her overly tuned emotions, so her girlfriend knew that fighting in this battle was extremely difficult for her, and she was proud of her for stranding so strongly for their found family. 

Jacob and Dot were in charge of Dr. Faber, who was a real bastard and loved to play dirty. At this point, Dot was missing a hand too, but it hadn’t been lost forever like Rachel’s fortunately. Jacob was finally able to get a good hold on the Doctor, and allowed Dot to rip him apart as he held him in his jaws.

The sounds of stone cracking could be heard as Dot was relentlessly tearing at the doctor, trying to give him the punishment he deserved before he ultimately would be burned. 

She normally wasn’t one to be overly violent, the opposite, in fact. She was a caretaker more than anything, but if someone is a threat to her family, she _will_ take them out. 

He was the next added to the fire. 

Toni and Shelby ripped apart the other tall man, Alex, and threw him in the fire as well, but Shelby’s body was too cracked to continue, so Toni threw her on her back and made off towards the woods where she could keep her safe until she was fully healed. 

When they reached the forest, Toni laid the vampire down as gently as she could, and then shifted so that she could take care of her girlfriend better. Shelby’s face was littered with cracks, and she was one punch away from joining Rachel and Dot in the one hand club. 

“Hey, you’re okay, you’re safe now,” Toni soothed as she held Shelby’s head in her lap, and ran her hands through her blonde hair. 

“I know,” Shelby smiled up at her, “Thank you for bringing me out here, I… I don’t think I could’ve watched them kill her.” 

Toni looked down at her with a sympathetic look, “I understand, it’s hard, even if she’s not the same girl you once loved.” 

Shelby just hummed and closed her eyes, letting her body stitch itself back together. 

-

Back on the battlefield, Martha had gone after Becca, swinging her huge paws at the vampire, leaving large scratches in her porcelain skin. 

Leah and Fatin joined Martha’s fight, taking swings at Becca and running interference when she got a bit too close to the wolf for comfort. 

They worked together, each taking a swing at Becca, and when Fatin ripped her arm off and started beating her with it, she knew this was revenge for what she did to Shelby as much as it was punishment for being one of Gretchen’s inner circle groupies. 

With only Gretchen and Nora left, the group surrounded Nora while Rachel continued to beat down on Gretchen. 

Gretchen’s face was cracked beyond anything anyone had ever seen, and chunks of her stone body were flying in bits and landing all around the two of them. 

Just when they thought it was all over, a huge group of vampires sprinted from the forest: Gretchen’s army of crazed newborns. 

Dot looked frightened by the sight of them for a moment before yelling, “Guys, we got this! Just stick together and protect each other!” 

As they continued to get closer, Leah recognized them as the twelve missing people from the reports that morning. All high school students, all turned against their will to be used as a pawn in Gretchen’s game. None of them asked for any of this, and Leah was extremely torn about fighting them over something they really had no part in. 

“Fatin,” Leah whispered, “I don’t know if I can do this, they’re just kids.” 

Dot and Jacob started to fight the vampires head on, with Martha, Seth, and Leah using their brute wolf strength to their advantage. 

Fatin whipped her head towards Leah then, “I know they didn’t ask for this, and they really shouldn’t be punished for this, but right now, it’s us or them. I need to help our family fight them off, but you can stay here and keep an eye on Nora, okay?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before springing in to help Jacob and Dot, making sure someone was always at their back while they fought off the newborns. 

Vampire parts and pieces were being thrown into the fire as the coven and the pack tore through the newborns. Despite newborn vampires being stronger than your average vampire, and especially stronger than vampires who only feed on animals, they don’t know how to use that strength, and that only aided in the fight against them. 

While the rest of her family were fighting, Leah just stared at Nora, who stood with her head in her hands, otherwise unmoving. She looked extremely distressed, and Leah almost felt bad for her. 

Almost. 

-  
In the forest, Toni was pacing. She could hear the fight happening on the field, she could hear the yells of the coven, and she could hear the pack in her head discussing how to take down twelve newborn vampires. 

She couldn’t leave Shelby’s side, though. 

Especially because, as it stands, Shelby wasn’t healing like she was supposed to. 

“Shelby,” Toni crouched down next to her, running her fingers along a deep crack along her cheek, “You’re… you’re not healing. What do you need, Shelb? I want to help you but you have to let me.” 

Shelby’s head rolled a little, and she cracked one eye open, “I need,” she looked away from Toni, “I need blood, Toni.” 

_Oh._

On instinct, Toni got a bit squeamish, but immediately shook herself out of it. 

Anything her mate wants, she was going to get. 

“Um, okay, what do you want like, a squirrel?” Toni cringed at how stiff she sounded, but then steeled herself, determined, “I can go get you something, just stay here, okay?” 

Toni shifted and sprinted into the woods, always keeping one ear trained on Shelby. 

She was back at Shelby’s side within ten minutes, not wanting to leave her girlfriend vulnerable for very long, even though the fight was happening on the other side of the field, far away from her hiding spot in the forest. 

A small deer was hanging from Toni’s mouth; she dropped it down next to Shelby and shifted back. 

The vampire seemed to perk up at the smell of the blood, and turned over so she could lean over the animal. 

Her fangs caught the light as she made to bite down, but she suddenly snapped her jaw shut. 

Toni’s brow furrowed, wondering if something was wrong with this deer that she’d found, “You okay, Shelb?” 

Shelby looked up at Toni with black eyes, “I um, I need you to turn around.” 

Toni’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead and she quickly spun around on her heels, giving Shelby the privacy she wanted as she heard her bite down on the deer’s neck. 

-

As Dot and Fatin threw the last of the newborns into the flame, Rachel continued to pound on Gretchen. By this point, Gretchen didn’t even have much of a face to be seen, in its place was instead a marble crater, continuing to crack and break with every punch. 

Dot shared a look with Fatin, and moved towards Rachel. She put a singular hand on her shoulder, and whispered, “It’s over, Rach.” 

Rachel panted as she finally stopped, her shoulders sagging as she sat over Gretchen’s unmoving body. Her last action was to spit on her face before deciding to give it up. 

Rachel grabbed her head with her left hand and the stump on her right hand, and ripped her head from her body, tossing it overhead and landing it directly into the fire. 

Rachel took her time tearing up each piece of Gretchen to burn her, which was most definitely overkill, but everyone let Rachel have her moment. She deserved it after everything that’s happened. 

When it was all over, Nora stood among the girls and the wolves, and collapsed to the ground. 

“I-I’m so sorry,” she heaved, “She told me that she would spare Rachel if I gave her intel on our coven and on the wolves. She always assured me that no harm would come to any of you, that Jeanette lashing out was going directly against orders, that what I was doing was actually going to help all of you in the end. She threatened my life, but she also made me think I was helping some noble cause. I’m so so sorry” 

The coven didn’t know what to say. 

On one hand, Nora was a part of their family, and she was only trying to protect them. On the other hand, she still went behind their backs for months, doing things she knew were wrong, and allowed them all to constantly fall into harm’s way. 

Dot was about to suggest that the coven take Nora back to their home and discuss their options there, but they were interrupted by another group of vampires emerging from the forest. 

Before they even saw who they were, Rachel muttered, “Not a-fucking-gain.” 

At the same time, Toni and Shelby came back to the group from the other direction, Shelby looking less cracked and Toni back in her human form. 

Dot knew exactly who the other vampires were the moment they stepped onto the field, and she had never been simultaneously more relieved or more scared to see them in her entire long life. 

Walking in a group, dressed in their telltale ornate outfits, was the Volturi. 

Rosalie’s near white hair stood out against the black of their robes, and every member’s skin sparkled as the sun broke through the clouds. 

“Dottie, is that who I think it is?” Shelby whispered. 

“Yeah,” Dot said, finally letting her shoulders fall, “We did it in time. We accomplished our mission.” 

The Volturi came to a stop in front of the coven and shifter group, staring them down, seeming to study them, before their leader finally spoke up, “I’ve certainly had more dramatic entrances before, but I’m glad the awe never really goes away.” 

“Now,” Rosalie continued as she fixed her golden eyes onto Nora, who was still in a heap on the ground, nearly hysterical, “What should we do with the last remaining traitor?”


	9. tell me when you hear my heart stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's pretty short, especially compared to the last two, but it just felt right to have an almost cool down chapter before the very last one. i hope y'all have enjoyed this fic, feels weird that tomorrow it comes to an end! 
> 
> title is from chop and change by the black keys from the eclipse soundtrack

Everyone held their breath as Rosalie stared Nora down. 

It hadn’t really crossed anyone’s mind that Nora, despite having a seemingly pure reason to take part in Gretchen’s plot, still technically committed high treason against the vampire government, and there would have to be consequences. 

Rosalie let her eyes linger a moment more before turning towards Edward, who was on her left, and raised a single eyebrow at him. 

“She was coerced,” Edward finally spoke, “Gretchen threatened her family if she didn’t comply.” 

Rosalie nodded and turned back to Nora, “Your thoughts and memories don’t lie, so we will spare your life, and even exempt you from any kind of prison sentence in Voltera, but take this as a final warning: one toe out of line in the future, and we won’t be so kind.” 

Nora physically trembled as she nodded her acceptance and thanked the Volturi in an unsteady voice. 

The mood shifted then, now that official business was finished, as Rosalie moved to properly greet Dot as an old friend would, and the rest of the Volturi mingled with the coven and the shifters.

Particularly, Jacob and Edward shared an extremely charged look that made Shelby shift her eyes back and forth between the two of them as she tried to figure out their connection. 

Toni simply laughed and whispered, “What? You think you’re the only vampire that’s ever been imprinted on by a wolf?” 

Shelby looked at Toni, then swung her head back to look between Jacob and Edward, then back to Toni, “No!” 

Toni just continued to laugh. 

-

It was later when the mood became serious again. 

The coven was back home, unwinding from the horrifically hectic last couple of days. 

For beings that never get tired, they were _exhausted_. 

Though, there was one more thing to take care of. Even though the Volturi spared Nora from any sort of punishment, letting her go without even a slap on the wrist, the coven was still extremely hurt by her actions and her betrayal, and wanted to insure her actions had consequences. 

“We’ve talked,” Dot started, “and we decided we would ask you to leave, but only for a year.” 

Nora looked away then, away from the five pairs of golden, disappointed and hurt eyes staring at her, and fidgeted with her hands. 

“We just think it would be best for allowing us to work through our anger and disappointment, and to better allow us to trust you again when the time comes,” Dot continued, “Some of us actually wanted it to be longer, especially considering we’re immortal, but we thought that a year was sufficient.” 

“You technically can choose to do whatever you want with this time, as you’ll still have access to the coven bank account and whatever else, but our cousins up in Denali have offered for you to stay with them as well, in case you’d rather not be lonely,” Fatin added, voice tight with emotion. 

“I fully understand why you’ve made this decision, and I can only hope that in a year, we can all be together again,” Nora said, looking back up at her family, “You know, you’re almost doing me a favor. Feeling all your disappointment, anger, and sadness coming off of you all in waves is almost unbearable. 

I think I will go up to Denali, so if you need me, you know where to find me.” 

Nora then stood and headed upstairs to her room, speeding through the packing process, and taking her bags out the door to her car. 

“I’ll miss you all so much, and I’m going to do everything I can to make this up to you,” she said as she left, the door closing behind her with more finality than any of the coven could bear. 

“This fucking sucks,” Leah finally said, and all the girls nodded in agreement. 

-

It had been a week, and things were finally starting to feel normal again. 

Rachel was slowly but surely coping with Nora’s betrayal and her absence, taking many late night runs and always coming back with a fist full of cracks. 

Dot, Fatin, and Leah were always attached at the hip, but now they seemed inseparable. Shelby thought that boiled down to a shared coping between the three of them, one that they had probably perfected after all these years together. 

Shelby, who one might’ve thought wouldn’t have been as affected as the rest of the coven by Nora’s betrayal, was taking it pretty hard. After all, this is her new family, and one that she’s grown very attached to in a very short time, and after everything that happened with her father, an attack from within hit a little too close to home. 

Because of this, Shelby and Toni did a lot of back and forth between the coven’s home and the res, staying with each other most nights. The nights for Shelby are still the loneliest, and without Nora there to keep her company anymore, she had a hard time just sitting with her thoughts. 

The first night without Nora, Shelby actually ran to the res in the middle of the night. 

She sped to the Blackburn house, but didn’t enter. She sat in a tree outside of Martha and Toni’s bedroom window, and allowed Toni’s presence to calm her. 

It only took two more nights after that for Toni to catch her. 

“I looked out my window and saw a creeper in the tree, you’re lucky I didn’t call in the cavalry,” Toni joked. 

After that, Toni would spend most of her nights at the coven’s house, especially since they really didn’t want to force Martha to share a room with the two of them at the Blackburn house. Toni figured that, after all those years spent sleeping on Martha’s floor and waking her up with her nightmares or her late night entries, she figured she could return the favor by giving her some alone time. 

Though, the coven’s home wasn’t the best option either. 

For sleeping, it was wonderful; Shelby’s queen sized bed was extremely comfortable, and Shelby’s room was starting to feel like her own as well. Shelby even cleared out a drawer in her dresser for Toni, and made sure there was always an extra tooth brush in her en suite. 

For any other time, though, the coven’s house was _not_ the place to be. When your girlfriend/soulmate lives with four vampires with super hearing, no amount of soundproofing or whispering could ensure privacy in that damn place. 

So, Shelby and Toni would often go out to the bluffs, where they had their first kiss, on the outskirts of the res, when they wanted time to themselves. They would lay in the bed of Toni’s truck, outfitted with pillows and blankets, wasting away their endless hours together, and basking in their shared connection to one another. 

A connection that, at least for Shelby, was turning into love. 

Despite the fact that they were destined to be together, Shelby was nervous about telling Toni exactly how she felt. She couldn’t bring herself to just _tell_ Toni that she loved her. 

Instead, she found herself doing little things like taking advantage of her speed to run to Port Angeles to get books from the Native-owned small bookstore Toni had mentioned once, holding her hand in the halls at school, and listening for her heartbeat even when they were separated. 

Shelby tried to convey everything she couldn’t say into her actions, hoping beyond hope that Toni got the message. 

-

This continued on for a few weeks, before one of them finally cracked. 

Shelby had needed to go on a hunting trip, she missed the last family outing to go to Martha’s dance competition with the pack, which Toni had asked her to attend, saying that Martha would be so excited to see her in the crowd with everyone else. She had an incredible time, and Martha was amazing, but she was hungry. In fact, her eyes were nearly black, and people at school were catching on. 

“Are you wearing contacts? Your eyes are normally so light,” Jessica Stanley asked her in the hall after gym yesterday. 

Shelby panicked, “Um… it’s the fluorescents,” she muttered before walking away. 

So Shelby and Toni headed out into the woods together, Toni excited for the opportunity to get to run around in her wolf form, and Shelby just eager to get her hunger sated. 

They split up for a bit, Shelby not really wanting Toni to see her acting like a wild animal, and Toni just wanting to sprint. Toni found Shelby much faster than she was expecting, apparently, because she was just standing up from the deer on the ground when Toni shifted back and leaned on a tree. 

As Shelby tried to wipe as much blood off of herself as possible, Toni smiled to herself. 

No matter how much the word of her culture and the influence of her nature tried to tell her that loving Shelby was wrong, she just couldn’t stop. She couldn’t stop loving her, and with that realization, she just had to tell her right then and there. 

Toni stepped out from her spot between the trees and seemed to startle Shelby, who still had blood on her face and in her hair. 

“Toni! You scared me,” She said as she tried to clean herself up even quicker now. 

Toni licked her thumb and reached out, wiping a spot of blood off of the corner of Shelby’s mouth. 

She was met with protests, “Toni, don’t, it’s gross,” she grabbed her hand away and held it in her own, “This is why I’d much rather do this alone.” 

“Hey, I actually think you’re pretty hot all covered in blood,” Toni teased, “It definitely gives me _Jennifer’s Body_ vibes.” 

Shelby rolled her eyes and looked to her left, flustered by Toni always. 

“And, you know what,” Toni continued, “I think red hair might just be your look.” 

Shelby looked back at Toni and touched the side of her head, where half of her hair was pulled up into a half-bun, and her hand was wet with blood when she pulled it away. 

“Oh, gosh, you can’t take me anywhere,” Shelby said, feeling embarrassed. 

“No, it’s cool, I like the look, though it looks like you get your hair dyed at a salon staffed by toddlers,” Toni laughed, and Shelby did too. 

As they just stood there, holding hands, face to face, Toni moved her free hand up to Shelby’s stone cold face and said, “I love you.” 

Shelby stilled, shocked by the words she'd been waiting so long to say just fall so simply from Toni's lips. 

For the first time in her whole life, Shelby felt like the person saying those three words to her actually meant them. Toni didn't have a condition, she didn't have to meet an impossible standard for those words to hold any weight. Toni _loved_ her. Loved her just the way she is, with no requests to change, no silent agreements to hide who she was, no threats to send her away if she stepped out of line. 

Hell, here Shelby was, covered in blood, heart laid bare in Toni's hands, just waiting for her to squeeze and send her crippling to the ground. 

But Toni wouldn't do that, she would _never_ do that. 

Because Toni loved her. And she loved her right back. 

Instead of responding in that moment, Shelby just leaned in and kissed her. 

When she pulled away, a huge smile forming on her face, she whispered, “I love you, too.”


	10. where only the sweetest words remain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here it is, y'all, the end! i honestly can't believe it's over, especially since this is my first time ever writing a full, multi-chapter fanfic. i hope y'all like this ending, and i hope y'all think i did right by the characters, because that's all i wanted to do :) 
> 
> in the future, i might end up writing some one-shots in this universe because i just love it so so much. 
> 
> without further ado, the title is from turning page by sleeping at last from the breaking dawn part 1 soundtrack

The date is August 13th, 2022. Nearly a year since Gretchen’s attack on Forks, nearly a year since Becca was killed and Nora was sent away, nearly a year since Shelby met Toni. 

And today is their wedding day. 

Fatin had Shelby sitting at the vanity in her room, styling her hair, with Leah sitting on the bed; everyone had the same happy smiles on their faces, they just couldn’t help it. 

Fatin waved her hand to clear the hairspray from the air before gasping softly, “Shelby, you look beautiful.” 

Shelby reached up to where Fatin’s hand was resting on her shoulder and made eye contact with her through the mirror, “This is all because of you, you know. If you hadn’t saved me that night, I don’t know where I’d be. I can’t thank you enough for giving me this family,” Shelby said with emotion clear in her voice. 

“If we could cry, I know my make up would be absolutely ruined,” Fatin said lightly, “Shelby, I couldn’t be happier to have you in our family, and I can’t wait to properly welcome Toni in as well, even though she’s been practically living here for six months now.” 

“Fatin, you tried to sleep with me the day after I moved in, and you’re criticizing Shelby for moving too fast?” Leah laughed from her spot on Shelby’s bed, “Shelby, you truly look gorgeous, Toni’s going to absolutely love it.” 

“Thank you, Leah,” Over the course of the year, Shelby and Leah had grown very close. They found solace in the other, each understanding their self destructive tendencies, and even helping each other to work through their problems in healthy ways. 

Leah even helped Shelby through a rough patch with Toni, two months in when Shelby had gotten an overwhelming feeling to flee, before her heart could get broken, and Leah was there the whole time, ensuring she didn’t do anything she’d regret. 

Shelby was there for Leah, too, when her obsessions got overwhelming and the voices in her head got much too loud. Obviously Dot and Fatin are extremely understanding and help their girlfriend out as much as they can, but it has been nice for her to have a friend outside of her relationship that understands the workings of her mind; someone who can relate. 

Suddenly they heard Martha yelling out to Toni from downstairs where she was helping her get ready along with Seth and Jacob, “Toni! Get back here, I still have to put on your tie!” 

They heard footsteps bounding up the stairs, but Fatin planted herself in front of the door before Toni could barge in. 

“Woah there, Fido,” she said as she blocked Shelby from Toni’s line of sight, “Where do you think you’re going? You can’t see her yet, it’s bad luck.” 

“C’mon, Fatin, I just want to see her before we start,” Toni whined, “It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve seen her!” 

“Toni, we saw each other this morning! You can wait another hour,” Shelby yelled out from behind Fatin, “I don’t want to introduce any kind of bad luck here today, with our luck, a vampire war will break out and I’ll have to fight people in this beautiful dress.” 

“Hey, that’s exactly why I need to see you! I want to see the dress before it’s splattered in the blood of your enemies!”

“Go away Toni,” Shelby sing-songed, “or we’re not gettin’ married at all.” 

“Okay, okay,” Toni said, her voice was further away when she called out, “I love you!” 

“I love you, too!” 

-

Fatin and Martha had put themselves in charge of the decorating for the wedding, and it was _beautiful_. 

The venue was a little clearing in the woods by the coven’s home, and they decorated it with long vines full of flowers hanging down from the branches of the trees, and simple white chairs. 

The altar was a wooden archway covered in the same flowers, and the isle was lined with beautiful green and white flower bushes at the ends of each row of chairs. Flower petals covered the actual walkway of the isle, which was a dirt path that Martha had the wolves help clear of any unwanted weeds or plants. 

The guest list wasn’t very big, with mainly only people from the res and the coven on the list. Their cousins from Denali were invited, a few kids from school, and they even sent out an invite to Voltera, but no one actually expected the Volturi to show up. 

The guests were arriving, as it was getting closer and closer to the start of the wedding. Jacob’s big truck pulled up carrying the attendees from the res, with some of the teenagers riding in the bed, all dressed up in suits and ties.

Martha’s mom got out and was escorted by Jacob to their seats in the front of Toni’s side of the aisle, and admired all the work that Martha and Fatin had put in to make this day so special. 

The next cars that rolled up were a black Mercedes bringing the Denali coven, and a beat up minivan that brought some kids from the school. 

Dot watched the cars pull in while looking out the windows of Shelby’s room, she snuck up here to make sure everything was going okay, and she just wanted to see Shelby in her dress as well. 

Dot has always felt like a caregiver to these girls, not a mother, really, but more of a cool aunt. A leader, someone to give them advice, but mainly, someone to be proud of them. And Dot was _so proud_ of Shelby today. 

Over the course of Shelby’s year living with them so far, Dot got to know exactly what her home situation had been like, and how much anger and pain this young woman held within her. 

Dot held her as she recounted every horrible thing Dave Goodkind had instilled in her, and made a promise that, as long as they were together, she’d never have to step foot in Texas ever again. 

Dot became a listening ear, as well as a guide in helping Shelby heal, and that has brought them unbelievably close.

About a week ago, Shelby had pulled Dot aside, asking her if they could talk in her office for a moment. Dot agreed, of course, and led the blonde into her study, and asked her what was wrong. 

Shelby took a deep breath before asking, “Dottie, will you walk me down the aisle?” 

Dot didn’t respond quick enough for Shelby before she jumped to explain, “I don’t mean that I think of you in a weird fatherly role, because I don’t! And I didn’t mean to offend you! I just thought that, since you’re the leader around here, and you’re someone I look up to and respect so much, that you would be a good choice, seeing as I don’t really have a dad to ask.” 

Dot walked up to Shelby and grabbed her by the shoulders, “Of course I will, Shelb,” and then pulled her into a hug. 

So now Dot was preparing to walk Shelby down the aisle, something she never thought she’d have to do for anyone, but she was so glad that she even considered her important enough to ask. It made her feel like she wasn’t wasting this second, eternal life she’d been given, and that she wasn’t wasting any of the girls’ lives by changing them either. 

One member of their family was missing, though, and Shelby seemed to notice. 

“Wait, y’all, where’s Rachel?” She asked as she looked between Dot, Fatin, and Leah. 

“She swore to me that she’d be here,” Shelby was starting to look distressed. 

“She just had to run an errand, she should be here any moment,” Fatin soothed Shelby, sharing a panicked look with Dot. 

Before Shelby could question again, Rachel came walking down the hall towards Shelby’s room, “I heard someone say my name?” She asked, stopping in the doorway with her arms on each side of the frame. 

“Shelby stood up to move towards Rachel, “Where have you been? I thought you were skippin’ out on me.” 

Shelby nearly pulled her into a hug, but Rachel stopped her, “I had to pick something up, I hope you don’t mind the surprise,” and she moved from the door to reveal Nora standing behind her in the hall. 

“I’m back a bit early from my excommunication, I hope that’s alright,” Nora timidly asked, “I just really didn’t want to miss this wedding.” 

Shelby smiled at Rachel, who smiled just as big back, and then she gestured for Nora to come in for a hug. 

This day seemed almost perfect to reunite with Nora. As terrible as her actions were, in a way, she played a role in Shelby and Toni finding each other, and no one could find it in their hearts to remain mad at her for that. 

Dot clapped, pulling everyone back to the present moment, “Okay, I know we’ve got emotional reunions to do, but we have a wedding to attend, and we’re currently holding up the most important guest,” everyone laughed as Shelby pulled away from Nora, and they all finally descended the staircase, ready to get Shelby wed. 

Toni’s party had already made their way outside, with Toni standing at the altar waiting for Shelby. She was wearing a tailored black suit with black dress shoes, a baby pink tie and matching socks, with her hair down her back in curls. 

Toni watched as Fatin, Leah, and Rachel made their way to Shelby’s side of the altar as her bridesmaids, wearing baby pink floor length dresses. She looked over at her own side to see Martha, Leah, and Seth; Martha and Leah in the same bridesmaids dresses, and Seth in a black suit not unlike her own. Jacob had walked her down the aisle, and had taken his seat next to Martha’s mom on her side. 

The only thing that was missing was a preacher, or at least someone ordained, to marry them, but no one was at the altar with Toni. She looked around trying to find whoever was going to certify her union to Shelby, but she didn’t see anyone except her friends and family. 

“Fatin, Fatin!” Toni hissed over at Shelby’s bridesmaids, who were whispering amongst each other. 

Fatin’s head snapped to Toni, “What?” 

“Did you get anyone to marry us? Where’s the preacher or whatever?” Toni was fully panicking now. 

Fatin couldn’t even get an answer out when the last person Toni ever expected took the spot next to her, ready to marry her and Shelby. 

“You look wonderful, Toni,” Rosalie smiled at her. 

She wasn’t wearing her usual Volturi garb, instead she wore a stunning black dress. Nothing too flashy, as to not draw attention, but Rosalie Hale would not be caught dead in anything less than a design that hadn’t even hit a runway yet. 

Toni blinked and gaped in disbelief, staring at the blonde woman next to her. 

She shook her head and then briefly turned to look at the crowd and found Edward next to Jacob on her own side, and Bella and Alice a couple rows back on Shelby’s side. Toni held back a laugh as Jessica and some of their high school friends fawned over the vampires and their expensive outfits, clearly in disbelief that Toni and Shelby knew anyone _that_ cool. 

Toni looked back at Fatin, who winked at her and mouthed, “You can trust me,” before turning when the sound of the organ started up. 

When Shelby and Dot started to walk together down the aisle, Toni felt the tears roll down her cheeks. Shelby had made a joke the day before that Toni was going to have to cry for the both of them, and she was already living up to that promise. 

Shelby’s dress was stunning. It fit her perfectly; it was lacey and strapless, with a long train that trailed behind her, splitting the petals on the ground like waves on the ocean. Her hair was its usual half up, half down style, but this time with a loose braid as the ‘half-up’ part. 

When Dot left her at the altar, Toni already felt like an absolute mess, and she still had the vows and the actual getting married part still left to get through. 

Toni and Shelby smiled at each other, Toni hardly even listening as Rosalie began the ceremony. 

They were both broken out of their spell by Rosalie prompting them to say their vows, which they said together.

“To have and to hold,” Toni started. 

“For better, for worse,” Shelby continued. 

“For richer, for poorer.” 

“In sickness and in health.”

“To love.” 

“To cherish as long as we both shall live.”

“I do.” 

“I do.” 

“I now pronounce you wife and wife, you may now kiss the bride,” Rosalie said with a smile. 

Toni and Shelby looked at each other, and finally leaned in and kissed. They heard whooping from behind, which definitely sounded like Seth, while the rest of the crowd applauded. When they finally pulled apart, they rested their foreheads against each other, Toni’s cheeks still wet from her endless string of tears. 

“I love you so much,” Shelby whispered.

“I love you, too,” Toni responded before leaning in for another kiss. 

-

The coven decided to stay in Forks for quite a while. 

Since they were no longer in high school, they could get away with seeing people less and keeping to themselves either in the woods at their home, or on the res. 

Turns out, before Shelby and Toni’s wedding reception, Rachel and Martha had never really met, and when they finally did, it was Martha’s turn to imprint. 

This development not only was incredible for both Martha and Rachel, finally finding their soulmate, but also for Toni, who had been extremely upset after she learned that she stopped aging the moment she imprinted on Shelby, and would never age again. 

She couldn’t believe that not only would she get to spend forever with her soulmate, but also with her best friend; she could not have been given a better reward for all the ways she suffered in the first 18 years of her life. 

The coven fell into a comfortable new way of life, then. 

Toni moved into Shelby’s room permanently, and Martha moved into Rachel’s. Each couple wouldn’t stop annoying the rest of the clan with their honeymoon phase, but all of their ‘disgust’ was all expressed with love. 

With a family made of eight now, they played many more games of vampire baseball out on the field, making new memories to overshadow the bad ones that haunted that area for far too long. 

They became a unit, and they moved as one too. Hunting trips now had two wolves pulling up the rear, grocery runs now involved Fatin and Martha stocking the house with enough for the two wolves to live on, and trips to La Push were now more often than ever, with the treaty being rectified to allow vampires onto the res permanently. 

They even took a trip to Voltera, where they spent time admiring the mysterious Italian city and enjoying tours given by Bella and Alice of the ancient buildings and cobblestoned streets. 

Eventually, though, the coven had to move on, go to a new town when things got suspicious, and this time, packing up the cars for three more travelers felt like the way things had always been. 

When they pulled up to Dot’s second favorite house up in Denali, not far from their cousins, things just felt _right_. 

It felt like their perfect piece of forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaannnnddd it's over! shelby and toni's wedding was Heavily inspired by edward and bella's, and i knew just how important that wedding was in the twilight saga, so i Had to end this fic with a wedding as well. like i said before, i hope y'all enjoyed! you can come nerd out with me about twilight and the wilds on my twit @karazreis :)

**Author's Note:**

> i hope y'all like this fic! i've got the whole thing written, so i'll update regularly, maybe every other day. hmu on twit if you want @karazreis


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